Independent journalist Miguel Cano recently spent a month walking in the most remote, ethnically Tibetan areas of the Tibetan plateau in Sichuan Province, sleeping in monasteries, and talking to locals, monks, Tibetan activists and Chinese (Han) citizens and officials.
Although foreign visitors can ostensibly travel freely within Tibet, in reality Cano was regularly detained by Chinese police, sometimes for several hours while an English-speaking officer was fetched to ask basic questions and impress upon him their concern for his welfare.
Yet despite the heavy official presence, Cano still found much to remind the visitor of the region’s Tibetan history.