The U.S. ambassador to China, Gary Locke, is currently on a rare-official-visit to Tibet, where he met with local authorities and raised the human rights situation in the region.
Gary who is accompanied by his family members and embassy staff urged the authorities to loosen up the situation and open the door for foreigners to travel more freely in the locked down region, the embassy said Thursday.
"Ambassador Locke is accompanied by his family members and other embassy officials, including the US Consulate General to Chengdu," phayul quoted Nolan Barkhouse, spokesman at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing as saying.
The U.S. embassy in Beijing said the ambassador was in Lhasa to observe the situation and his three-day-trip will end on Friday.
"The purpose of the visit is to familiarize with local conditions," said Nolan Barkhouse.
This is the first visit by an American ambassador since 2010 to Tibet.
Following the riots in the city in 2008, and more precisely with the self-immolations that engulfed the whole country in recent months, the Himalayan nation known as "Shangrila" has been virtually locked down with Chinese police and security cameras in every streets of Lhasa and other major cities.
More than 100 Tibetans have set themselves on fire in protest against the Beijing government, freedom in Tibet and the return of their exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama from India.
"We remain concerned by the deteriorating human rights situation in Tibetan areas, including the tragic self-immolations," said Justin Higgins.
However, in recent weeks, it was reportedly said that Beijing government was loosening up the situation in a bid to ease the tensions between the Tibetans and authorities in the region.
Chinese authorities in two of the Tibetan-populated areas of Qinghai and Sichuan provinces have permitted the Tibetans to openly venerate the Dalai Lama as the Buddhist religious head though not as a "political" leader, reported Radio Free Asia on Wednesday.
In the past, anyone found in possession of the Dalai Lama's photo was detained and imprisoned.
