Hundreds of police and paramilitary troops stood watch and hand-picked onlookers cheered as the Olympic torch passed through the Tibetan capital of Lhasa, the scene of bloody anti-government riots three months earlier.
No disruptions were reported Saturday although the overall mood was far more subdued than during the torch's earlier travels elsewhere in China.
The city, which has been under a security lockdown since the March riots, all but closed down for Saturday's relay, with streets deserted and shops closed. A security cordon was thrown around central Potala Square, with costumed performers taking the place of Buddhist pilgrims who visit to turn prayer wheels and prostrate themselves in front of the hillside palace, the traditional home of Tibetan rulers and now a museum.
Waiting for the torch's arrival at its final stop in the vast plaza, Lhasa resident Yongzong Tsering blamed the March riots for the low-key mood, repeating Beijing's claims that the protests were orchestrated by exile groups loyal to the Dalai Lama, the region's traditional Buddhist leader.
"The separatists want to make Tibet independent and they use this Olympic torch occasion to disrupt our nation's unity," he said. "So because of the March 14th riots in Tibet, that's why the mood today is somewhat different."
Officers lined the route through the historic city, while badge-wearing onlookers, who had been carefully screened and approved beforehand, waved flags and chanted "Go China."
A few dozen foreign reporters given special permission to cover the Lhasa leg were required to travel in a closely guarded convoy. They were only allowed to cover the opening and closing portions, isolating them from contact with ordinary residents.
The roughly six-mile (10-kilometer) relay saw the main torch reunited with a separate one carried to the top of Mount Everest, with about half the 156 runners ethnic Tibetan, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
Summiting the world's highest peak marked the apogee of the global relay that saw ugly confrontations during some segments of its international legs between Chinese supporters and groups protesting Beijing's human rights record and policies toward Tibet and Sudan.
On both sides, anger was fueled by the March riot, in which Beijing says 22 people died and which spawned further protests throughout Tibetan-inhabited regions of western China.
Chinese officials have repeatedly accused the Dalai Lama of trying to sabotage the Beijing Olympics and preparing "suicide squads" to carry out attacks.
The 1989 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, who fled to India in 1959 amid a failed uprising against Chinese rule, has denied the charges. On a recent visit to Australia he pledged to "totally support" the Olympics and the torch relay, according to his exile government's official Web site.
Activist groups say the Tibet leg and Mount Everest relay are an attempt by Chinese leaders to symbolize their control over the Himalayan region, which communist forces occupied in 1949.
