The monks, who first spoke Tibetan and then switched to Mandarin so the reporters could understand them, said they knew they would probably be arrested for their actions but were willing to accept that.

They had rushed over to stop the reporters from being taken into an inner sanctum of the temple, saying they were upset that a government administrator was telling the reporters that Tibet had been part of China for centuries.

They said troops who had been guarding the temple since March 14 were taken away the night before the visit by the reporters.

One monk said they were upset that some of the people brought to worship at the temple “are not true believers but are Communist Party members.”

China rarely allows foreign reporters into Tibet under normal circumstances, so the media tour was meant to underscore the communist leadership’s determination to contain any damage ahead of the Beijing Olympics in August that was supposed to celebrate China as a modern, rising power.

The official Xinhua News Agency reported Thursday on the action by the monks, but did not say what the monks yelled out.

The rioting and four days of protests that preceded it were the worst anti-Chinese demonstrations in Lhasa in nearly two decades and they sparked protests in Tibetan areas across a vast portion of western China.

On Wednesday, the first day of the visit, police presence was visible but not overbearing in the newly built up and heavily Chinese portions of Lhasa.

... contd.