As the smoke from burning buildings clears from the sky above Lhasa, Tibetan exile groups are scrambling to get a clear picture of what happened during pro-independence protests last week. Above all, they want to know many people died and how. The Tibetan-government-in-exile says 30 people are dead in the violence that gripped the city on Friday and Saturday. China's official Xinhua news agency says 10 civilians died in fires set by rioters.

However, two things are already clear. The first is that Beijing's hopes for a smooth and successful Olympics now hinge on this issue. The second is that protests have already spread to Tibetan populations living in the broad crescent of provinces that rims the Autonomous Region.

Pro-independnce websites have posted mobile phone photos and video footage of chanting crowds and riot police.

The 300-year-old Labrang monastry in Gansu province. Labrang is a pilgrimage and teaching center, and one of the most important centers of Tibetan Buddhism. Reliable reports from what has happened or is happening there are as hard to find as for Lhasa itself, but mobile phone photos

 

There are Tibetans living in a broad crescent of provinces bordering the Tibet Autonomous Region