DHARAMSALA, India—Hundreds of angry young Tibetans protested on Saturday in Dharamsala, home to Tibet's spiritual leader the Dalai Lama and the refugees' "government-in-exile", after hearing about bloodshed in Tibet.
China gave Tibetan independence protesters an ultimatum to surrender on Saturday after riots in Lhasa in the worst unrest in the region for two decades.
Not far from where the Dalai Lama was recovering from a cold and keeping up his lifetime routine of praying for peace, a crowd of young Tibetans gathered to vent their rage after hearing news from the remote, mountain capital.
A crowd tore apart a flaming effigy of Chinese President Hu Jintao in normally peaceful Dharamsala in the Indian Himalayas and the protesters decided to march to New Delhi.
"If we don't do this now then there won't be any other time like this," said Dechen Dolkar, in between attempts to pacify Indian police officers irritated that no one had sought their permission for the protest.
She said she joined the protest after hearing shouts outside the coffee shop she owns in town. Women and maroon-swathed monks were joined by casually dressed young men.
"It's been completely spontaneous," Dolkar said. "These young guys heard about what's happening in Tibet right now and most probably they felt useless that they could not do any thing about it."
Marches
Indian police stopped an earlier march outside Dharamsala which had aimed to travel to Tibet via New Delhi, organized by the Tibetan People's Uprising Movement.
About 100 marchers were detained at state-run guesthouses. Saturday's crowd, numbering about 500, was also heading first for New Delhi, Dolkar said later by telephone.
A batch of 46 Tibetan marchers from the uprising movement joined the march, organizers said.
In Dharamsala, some Tibetan businesses closed for the day.
Near the home of the 14th Dalai Lama little could be heard but bird song. "He is a monk so he follows his routine," explained Chhime Chhoekyapa, the Dalai Lama's spokesman.
That includes listening to news on the radio and praying for peace. "He said it's very sad," said Chhoekyapa. "As a Buddhist he prays for peace."
Although the Dalai Lama was resting after falling ill with a cold, he released a statement condemning the "brute force" of the Chinese authorities on Friday and has decided to meet with journalists on Sunday after his office was flooded with calls.
China has accused followers of the Dalai Lama of engineering the unrest in the run-up to the Beijing Olympics.
The riots emerged from a volatile mix of pre-Olympics protests, diplomatic friction over Tibet and local discontent with the harsh ways of the region's Communist Party leadership.
The protests, the worst since 1989 in the disputed region, have thrust China's role as Olympic host and its policy towards Tibet back into the international spotlight.
Chhoekyapa said that Saturday's march was more "high-spirited and emotional" than he had seen in a while.
"My parents used to say they wished they could go back and die in Tibet, but people now are more realistic," he said, adding: "but the desires never fade. I go where the Tibetans go."
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