The demonstration in Garze, a prefecture in Sichuan province, started Monday as a peaceful march by monks and nuns, but turned violent when armed police tried to suppress the crowd, which ballooned to about 200 after residents joined in, the Dharmsala, India-based Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy said.
China's official Xinhua News Agency said the protesters attacked police with knives and stones, killing one policeman. The Tibetan rights group said an 18-year-old monk died and another was critically wounded after security agents fired live rounds into the gathering.
It was not immediately possible to confirm either claim. Officials who answered telephone calls Tuesday at police and government offices in Garze either denied anything had happened or said they had not heard of such reports.
Garze borders Tibet, where several days of anti-government protests led by monks spiraled into violence on March 14 in the capital, Lhasa. Demonstrations in support of the Lhasa protests have since burgeoned rapidly throughout provinces surrounding Tibet.
The unrest in Garze indicates that Tibetan defiance is still running strong a week after thousands of Chinese troops fanned out to patrol areas outside of Lhasa and clamp down on fresh protests.
The uprising is the broadest and most sustained against Chinese rule in almost two decades, and the Communist leadership has accused Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, and his supporters of masterminding the dissent. The government says at least 22 people have died in Lhasa while Tibetan rights groups say nearly 140 Tibetans were killed, including 19 in Gansu province.
Meng Jianzhu, the minister of public security, ordered Tibet's security forces to remain on alert for further unrest and said "patriotic education" campaigns would be strengthened in monasteries, according to the Tibet Daily newspaper.
"The Dalai clique refuses to give up their evil designs, and even in their death throes are planning new acts of sabotage," Meng was quoted as saying Monday during a visit to Lhasa, referring to the Dalai Lama and his supporters.
Meng was the first high-level central government official to visit since protests began in the Tibetan capital on March 10, the anniversary of a failed uprising against Chinese rule.
Unrest among Tibet's Buddhist clergy has been blamed in part on compulsory "patriotic education" classes, widely reviled by monks for cutting into religious study and forcing them to make ritual denouncements of the Dalai Lama, who fled to India in 1959 after the failed uprising.
Despite such complaints _ and repeated government claims that all Tibetans support the Chinese government's stance _ Meng said the campaign should be broadened as part of efforts to "grasp and direct public opinion in the correct direction."
"Deeply enact propaganda education in ethnic and religious policies and the legal system among all the temples," Meng said. "Let all people at home and abroad and all ethnic groups thoroughly understand the true facts of the matter."
In photos accompanying the article, Meng was shown touring damaged shopping streets and congratulating police on a job well done.
At stops at the Jokhang temple, Tibet's most sacred shrine, and the Sera and Drepung monasteries, where the initial protests were launched, Meng chided monks.
"Every religion should carry out their activities according to the law and should never undermine national solidarity," Meng was quoted as saying by Xinhua. "Participating in the riot essentially violated the doctrines of Tibetan Buddhism."
Also on the trip was Zhang Qingli, Tibet's hard-line Communist Party leader, who said the region was in the front lines of a battle with the Dalai Lama and his followers. "From start to finish, we face a prolonged, extreme, complex struggle," he said.
Zhang, who has been in his position for almost three years, is known for his inflammatory statements. Speaking last year in Beijing, Zhang proclaimed that "the Central Party Committee is the real Buddha for Tibetans."
The continued Tibetan resistance despite Beijing's hard-line stance has put China's human rights record under the spotlight and has frustrated the Communist leadership, which is hoping for a smooth run-up to the Beijing Olympics.
Authorities have promised tight security during the Aug. 8-24 games and China's segment of the Olympics torch run. The flame-lighting ceremony in Greece on Monday was disrupted when protesters unfurled a black banner with handcuffs used to symbolize the five Olympic rings as the president of Beijing's Olympics organizing committee was giving a speech.
There was no mention of the disturbance in Chinese state-run media reports. The English-language China Daily newspaper on Tuesday gushed in a headline: "A perfect start on the road to gold."
The flame, which is due in the Chinese capital at the end of the month, is to be taken through Tibet and to the top of Mount Everest _ a move that has upset Tibetan activist groups, which accuse Beijing of using the event to convey a false message of harmony in the troubled Himalayan region.
China has banned foreign journalists from traveling to the protest areas, making it extremely difficult to verify any information. This week, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs plans to take a small group of foreign reporters to Lhasa, though it is unclear how much freedom they will be given.
"We hope the international community could be clearly aware of the nature of the Dalai clique, can tell right from wrong," ministry spokesman Qin Gang said.
Underscoring China's longtime position, he said that Beijing is open to dialogue with the Dalai Lama "as long as he gives up his separatist opposition and ceases his separatist activities."
In India, the Dalai Lama reiterated his opposition to violence and said he would resign as head of the Tibetan government-in-exile if the situation gets out of control.
"We always respect Chinese people and their culture," he said.
The Tibet Daily said 13 people were formally arrested in Lhasa on Monday for taking part in a March 10 protest outside Jokhang. The 13 chanted "reactionary slogans" and carried a "reactionary flag," the newspaper said, referring to the snow-lion flag of independent Tibet.
In Aba, another Sichuan county, Xinhua said 381 people involved in protests had surrendered to police as of Monday. Aba is where state media said police shot and wounded four rioters in self-defense on March 16, the first time the government has acknowledged shooting any protesters.
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Associated Press writers Christopher Bodeen in Beijing and Muneeza Naqvi in Delhi, India, contributed to this report.
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