Stage-Managed Tibet Tour Interrupted by Protesting Monks

LHASA, China — The stage-managed tour of Tibet's holiest temple was going according to the government script. Suddenly, 30 young Buddhist monks pushed their way in, slammed the door, and began shouting and crying to the foreign reporters that there was no freedom in the riot-torn region.

"What the government is saying is not true," shouted one monk, first in Tibetan until the confused reporters asked them to speak in Chinese. Then a wellspring of grievances poured out before government officials abruptly ended the session and told the journalists it was "time to go."

The emotional, 15-minute outburst by the red-robed monks decrying their lack of religious freedom was the only spontaneous moment yesterday in an otherwise tightly controlled government trip to the Tibetan capital for foreign reporters following this month's deadly riots.

On the second day of the tour, officials hewed to the government line — that the most violent anti-Chinese protests in nearly two decades was plotted by the exiled Dalai Lama and his supporters. Officials escorted two dozen reporters to shops, clinics, a school, and a jail to interview victims and rioters, many of them already widely interviewed by state media.

Those who tried to break away from the pack were followed by car and on foot, making all but the most fleeting of contact with ordinary Tibetans risky.

Only the monks at the Jokhang Temple, Tibet's holiest site, managed to upend the official stage-managed event. As reporters were ushered toward the temple's inner shrine by a senior monk and administrator, the 30 young monks began shouting to them. The monks said the believers then in the shrine were fake — members of China's ruling Communist Party. They complained that troops had ringed the monastery and kept it shut with all 117 monks inside since March 10 — the day the protests began — and were only removed Wednesday, when foreign journalists arrived.

"Tibetans have no freedom," one monk said. "We want the Dalai Lama to come back," said another, adding that they were certain to be detained.

The government officials then tugged at the journalists to leave and shouted: "Time to go." The monks filed upstairs. Hours later, the temple and the large square in front that is usually thronged with worshippers were closed again by paramilitary police in helmets and plastic shields.