Chinese-appointed Tibetan leaders used the passing of the Olympic torch relay through the capital Lhasa today to defend Communist Party control of the remote Buddhist region and denounce the exiled Dalai Lama.
The torch procession ended under tight security below the towering Potala palace after having been run for just over two hours before a carefully-selected crowd, some three months after the region was convulsed by bloody anti-Chinese protests.
"Tibet's sky will never change and the red flag with five stars will forever flutter high above it," Tibet's hardline Communist Party boss Zhang Qingli said at a ceremony at the end of the relay.
"We will certainly be able to totally smash the splittist schemes of the Dalai Lama clique," he added.
China accuses the Nobel Peace prize-winning Dalai Lama of inciting violence and trying to undermine the Beijing Olympics, which open on August 8th. The Dalai Lama denies the charges.
The Beijing Games torch has never been far from controversy, and never more so than in its run through the streets of the 3,650-metre high city of Lhasa.
Police and troops lined the streets, closely watching the groups of residents chosen to cheer on the torch. Groups of students from Lhasa University waved Olympic banners, the Chinese national flag, as well as the hammer and sickle banner of the ruling Communist Party.
"We are convinced that the Beijing Olympic Games' torch relay in Lhasa will further inflame the patriotic spirit of the people," Lhasa's Communist Party boss Qin Yizhi said at the opening ceremony, adding it would also help "smash the scheming of the Dalai Lama clique".
For many exiled Tibetans and human rights groups, the Lhasa torch relay serves as a reminder of China's overbearing influence.
"This provocative decision - with the blessing of the International Olympic Committee - could aggravate tensions and undermine the fragile process to find a peaceful long-term solution for Tibet and the region," said Human Rights in China Executive Director Sharon Hom.
But for many Chinese, outraged by the March unrest and then the protests against China's rule in Tibet that dogged the international stage of the torch relay, the Lhasa stop of the torch is a moment of vindication.
"The torch is a symbol of China and Tibet is an inseparable part of China," said Chen Tao, a Han Chinese student who was cheering on the relay.