It is an image that China's atheist Communist rulers are keen to promote as proof of the religious freedom they say is granted to minority groups.

But monks here simmer with resentment at Chinese control of this ancient Tibetan land.

"We are constantly monitored here," one sad-eyed young monk from Lhasa told AFP Friday as he signalled to one of at least six security cameras mounted in the temple, just southwest of Xining city in Qinghai.

"They (Chinese authorities) oppress us," whispered the monk, who has studied for 10 years at Kumbum, one of the most important monasteries of Tibet's predominant Yellow Hat school of Buddhism, which is headed by the Dalai Lama.

Since protests against China's 57-year rule of Tibet erupted into rioting in Lhasa last Friday, no demonstrations have occurred in Kumbum as police, fearing a possible uprising, tightened surveillance here.

Police here acted quickly as uprisings spread into nearby Chinese provinces with sizeable ethnic Tibetan populations, including reports of protest in nearby Tongren city, home to another important monastery.

"Several days ago you could see police running in the hills above, watching us," said the monk, who said he had been unable to speak with his parents since the crackdown in Lhasa.

"We can't use the phones here, they control the phone."

Although only a handful of police cars could be seen here, a palpable tension existed at the monastery, only about a 90-minute drive from the village of Taktser, where the Dalai Lama was born in 1935.

The Dalai Lama, Tibet's spiritual leader who fled his homeland after a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959, is persona non grata in Beijing, who refer to him as a "wolf" and a "beast" bent on Tibetan independence.

At Kumbum, many monks dressed in their traditional red and saffron robes sought to avoid talking with foreigners, whispering only, "You've come during a difficult time."

But there were clear signs that the monks' loyalties did not lie with the Chinese.

At the mention of the Dalai Lama, one monk put his hands together in reverent prayer. "All of us here believe in the Dalai Lama," he said.

Another Tibetan visiting Kumbum on Friday asked an AFP reporter if he had ever been to Tibet. Then, not waiting for a reply, said tartly: "Actually you're in Tibet now."

Qinghai is known by Tibetans as Amdo, an ancient part of their homeland that was incorporated into China proper.

Qinghai was officially created in the 1920s, while other parts of Amdo went into Sichuan and Gansu provinces after China officially annexed Tibet in 1951.

The area around Kumbum used to be almost exclusively populated by Tibetans and a handful of Mongolians but has been inundated by immigrating Han Chinese, which has affected the local culture.

"Only a few years ago all Tibetans here spoke Tibetan. But now the younger generation, 90 percent of them don't speak Tibetan," said a monk who was born in the region.

Since the communists came to power in China in 1949, the number of monks at Kumbum has fallen from 3,500 to about 700.

The monastery was closed in 1958 and its head abbot, Agya Rinpoche, forced to slave in the fields. During the destructive Cultural Revolution from 1966 to 1976, Red Guards vandalised objects of worship and Buddhist scriptures.

In 1998, Agya, who was recognised as the reincarnation of the father of Tsongkapa, the founder of the Yellow Hat sect, fled to California in protest of party policies.

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