Across China's mountainous west, armed troops watch over the Tibetan monasteries and towns that have emerged as hotbeds of protest kindled by traditions of defiance and newer economic grievances.
More than the Tibet Autonomous Region itself, where the upsurge of anti-Chinese protests and riots erupted last month, the historically Tibetan parts of neighbouring provinces have defied efforts to smother unrest with troop convoys, roadblocks and patrols, and warnings of harsh punishment to lawbreakers.
In Zhuoni, a county in the north-west province of Gansu, protesters in mid-March torched a school, set up their own roadblock and trashed officials' cars, residents said.
A recent trip along its tightly guarded roads showed the protests had stopped. Smashed windows of the local police offices and Chinese-owned shops had been quickly repaired, and traders were returning to dusty streets.
But Tibetans here and across south Gansu spoke of anger with the government campaign against the exiled Tibetan Buddhist leader, the Dalai Lama, and with economic shifts they said favoured Han Chinese migrants and Hui Muslim merchants in nearby towns.
"There are more and more Han here, so we can't develop," said Tsairang, a herder and farmer. He rejected the government's claim that the Dalai Lama's supporters orchestrated the violence. "It wasn't the Dalai Lama. He's like a member of our family who isn't allowed to comme home. You can't blame him. Southern Gangsu and nearby Sichuan and Qinghai provinces have seen outbursts of anti-Chinese protests since mid-March.
Last week, Tibetans in Sichuan clashed with police, leaving eight people dead, according to groups abroad that support Tibetan independence. Throughout southern Gansu in March, 94 people were injured in unrest, which did $32.6 million of economic damage, the Xinhua news agency said.
The traditions of Buddhist faith and political defiance that bond these areas to the Dalai Lama and his hopes, as well as economic grievances, are likely to keep these areas as terrain for conflict.
"Typically, it's these areas that have been at the forefront of resistance to Chinese policies," said Andrew Fischer of the London School of Economics, who has closely studied the province borderlands sometimes called collectively "Eastern Tibet." "They're extremely resilient. Eastern Tibet has generally been far more resilient than Lhasa, and that seems to be reflected in the pattern of protests."
FROM PIGS TO YAKS: The ethnic Tibetan lands of Sichuan, Yunnan, Gansu and Qinghai provinces vary enormously from parts long accommodated to Han Chinese culture to others where it can be difficult finding locals who speak much Mandarin.
In north Sichuan, "Baima" Tibetans have long practised intense farming and raising pigs, and absorbing much of the culture of nearby Han Chinese. In Xiangsujia Village, residents decorated their homes with posters of Mao Zedong and other Communist Party heroes, and followed local spirits, not Buddhism.
"We've learning to live with Han Chinese. That's natural isn't it?" said Anzhu, braiding her hair by a fire. "We all learn Chinese now. There's no use learning Tibetan. It can't get you a job, not even as a school teacher."
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