Anyone wondering how tight a grip the Chinese authorities held over the everyday life of Tibetans before this month's protests erupted might consider this. Even humming a song outdoors can be risky. Popular songs often contain hidden political lyrics, for instance a song about the Dalai Lama's sister, Gzunpelma. "Everyone can sing this song, even little kids in the Barkor area [the center of Lhasa's old city]", says a Lhasa resident who does not want to be named for fear of reprisals. The song first appeared about three years ago and circulated freely for a while. "At first they didn't notice it, then it was banned", she says. Now "we just sing it in the car or at home". The lyrics say, "You are our mother, you build our future", in tribute to Gzunpelma's school-building programme for refugee Tibetan children in India.
        Music is passed around surreptitiously on CDs. Tight controls on copying music at web cafes have long been in force, and all books and CDs carried by passengers on international flights into Tibet are checked. One foreign teacher tells how a friend tried to copy a CD of teaching material containing songs in English, but six web cafes refused to take the risk of copying it.
       "Music is very important to Tibetan cultural identity - there's always a requirement to sing a song when you're at a Tibetan party," says Kate Saunders of the International Campaign for Tibet. Music has become part of Tibetan resistance to Chinese rule. "Because open communication on all sorts of subject is just not possible, Tibetans will sometimes express their feelings in carefully phrased song lyrics or pop songs," says Saunders.
      For those, who've never heard Tibetan music, think of Scotch or Irish ballard singing. Much Tibetan music a has a similar sound, and get-togethers have the same song-swapping spontaneity as a good ceilidh.  
     Migration across the Tibetan plateau has increased as young Tibetans and resettled nomads from small, bleak towns look for work. This has widened the range of music that's getting passed around. Amdo music from the Tibetan areas of Qinghai and Gansu provinces is particularly famous and popular, and is much heard in Lhasa these days as young men from small settlements in Qinghai have flocked there to find work. One wonders if the government crackdown means Tibetans are bursting into politically tinged song more loudly than ever -- or whether they're too afraid to sing the same tunes.