Tibetan monks raging against China’s criticism of the Dalai Lama and state limits on their religious freedom defied government officials yesterday to storm a carefully orchestrated visit by foreign reporters to the capital of the restive Himalayan region.

The astonishing outburst by 30 to 40 monks, weeping and shouting as they stood in front of Chinese authorities and branded them as liars, marks one of the most significant signals of Tibetan resentment of Chinese rule and a huge embarrassment to the Government that organised the visit.

Robbie Barnett, a Tibet expert at Columbia University, said: “This is one of the most daring protests in recent Tibetan history. It must seem to the leadership like a rehearsal of their worst Olympic nightmare.”

The anti-Chinese unrest across Tibet has drawn worldwide attention to the region with less than five months to go before Beijing plays host to the Games, regarded as a celebration of the economic and social achievements of China.

An Associated Press reporter, Charles Hutzler, said one young monk among the group yelled: “Tibet is not free! Tibet is not free!” and then burst into tears. He described how the monks shattered plans to show the return of peace to Lhasa after deadly riots on March 14 in which 22 people died and hundreds of shops and offices were set on fire.

The monks rushed over to stop reporters from being taken into the inner sanctum of the Jokhang temple, the holiest shrine in Tibetan Buddhism in the heart of the capital, Lhasa. They were upset that a government administrator from the temple was recounting how Tibet had been a part of China for centuries.

The monks, most of them young, were agitated and seemed particularly anxious to convey that the Dalai Lama was in no way to blame for the recent violence. One said: “They want us to crush the Dalai Lama and that is not right.” Another added: “This has nothing to do with the Dalai Lama.”

China has renewed its vilification of the Tibetan temporal leader, who fled into exile after a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959, accusing him of orchestrating the riots in which hundreds of Tibetans rampaged through Lhasa, stabbing and beating ethnic Han Chinese. Tibetan exiles say that violence in Tibetan communities has left nearly 140 dead.

One member of the group of maroon-robed monks said: “They just don’t believe us. They think we will come out and cause havoc — smash, destroy, rob, burn. We didn’t do anything like that. They are falsely accusing us. We want freedom. They have detained lamas and normal people.”

They told the reporters, the first small group permitted to visit the troubled region since the riots, that they had not been allowed to leave the temple since the first non-violent demonstrations by monks from a temple on the edge of Lhasa on March 10.

Troops guarding the temple were removed the night before the visit. The monks were particularly incensed that the reporters were being escorted, they said, by Communist Party officials planted as monks.

Government officials said later that the monks would not be punished.

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