BBC NEWS | In Depth

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/guides/456900/456954/html/default.stm

Tibet has become the focus of world attention after violent protests against Chinese rule.

It has long captured the West’s imagination as the site of a mystical Utopia.

Geographically dramatic and remote, it has an average altitude of 13,000ft (4,000m) above sea level and is popularly referred to as “the roof of the world”.

It is isolated not only geographically, but also diplomatically. China enforced a long-held claim to Tibet in 1950, and it was subsequently incorporated into Chinese territory.

Tibet’s spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, fled to Dharamsala in northern India, where his supporters have set up a government in exile. Meanwhile Tibet itself is rapidly changing, as increasing numbers of Han Chinese arrive in search of work.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080317/ap_on_hi_te/china_youtube_blocked

Internet users in China were blocked from seeing YouTube.com on Sunday after dozens of videos about protests in Tibet appeared on the popular U.S. video Web site.

The blocking added to the communist government’s efforts to control what the public saw and heard about protests that erupted Friday in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, against Chinese rule.

Access to YouTube.com, usually readily available in China, was blocked after videos appeared on the site Saturday showing foreign news reports about the Lhasa demonstrations, montages of photos and scenes from Tibet-related protests abroad.

http://cryptome.cn/tibet080316/tibet080316.htm




A Tibetan protestor takes part in a protest in New Delhi, India, Sunday, March 16, 2008. Nearly 2,000 Tibetan exiles, the public voice of a region now largely sealed off from the rest of the world rallied Sunday and burned Chinese flags, ramping up their protests on behalf of demonstrators inside Chinese-ruled Tibet. (AP Photo/Mustafa Quraishi)