Tibet's mountain highway readies for Olympic spectacle

By Nick Mulvenney

LHATSE, China (Reuters) - A journey on Tibet's "Friendship Highway" is a tightly controlled reminder of the tensions and anxieties that China hopes to push aside as the Olympic Games torch passes through here in coming weeks.

The government is still clearly worried after last month's riots in the Tibetan capital Lhasa sparked the biggest protests against Chinese rule for decades.

A party of foreign reporters in Tibet to prepare for the torch relay leg up Mount Everest in May -- only the second foreign reporting group allowed in since the riots in mid-March -- were whisked by officials from Lhasa airport to Shigatse, the region's second city.

The highway winds its way across the mountainous Tibetan plateau from Lhasa to the Himalayan border with Nepal, passing through Shigatse, about 300 km (190 miles) west of Lhasa, and then Lhatse, which is about 160 km further along.

Shigatse is the traditional seat of the Panchen Lama, the Tibet Buddhist leader through which China has claimed religious credibility for its rule since his counterpart, the Dalai Lama, fled to India in 1959.

"We respect the Panchen Lama more than the Dalai Lama here," 26-year-old monk Nyma Dundrop told reporters at the Tsam Monastery, perched above the main Shigatse-Lhatse road at 4,500 meters (14,850 feet) above sea level. "And we feel free in religion."

The 1,000-year-old monastery displayed several portraits of the 10th Panchen Lama, a popular figure who died in 1989, and he was much more in evidence than the current 11th Panchen, controversially chosen with the backing of Beijing.

BAD BEHAVIOR

Nyma Dundrop, one of 22 monks at the monastery, was also allowed to give his opinion about the role of monks in the riots before questions about the Dalai Lama were cut short when the translator was hustled out of the room by a Beijing official.

"That's not a proper way for a lama (monk) to behave. That's not right," the monk said of the riots.

Outside Shigatse, the pastels of traditional Buddhist prayer flags around houses have been conspicuously supplemented by the bold red of Chinese flags, many clearly new.

The highway was quiet, perhaps because of the dearth of tour groups plowing their way through the Himalayan foothills to Everest or Nepal. The only significant traffic was a couple of military convoys heading back to Shigatse.

The military presence outside Shigatse was also lighter than it was heading out from Lhasa but even then it was now limited to a couple of helmeted sentries on a bridge and a few police checkpoints.

"There was no trouble here last month," said Dor Bujie, a retiree from Shigatse, whose visit to Xi Jin Hot Springs outside the city coincided with the arrival of the foreign media.

"Not in this prefecture, it was mainly in Lhasa. Here it is peaceful."