Chinese authorities in a Tibetan region of southwestern Sichuan province have again dispatched security forces to troubled Kirti monastery.Kirti, located in Ngaba Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, has been the scene this year of repeated self-immolation protests against rule by Beijing.The monastery had held a large prayer meeting at the weekend to mark an important date in the Tibetan Buddhist calendar, said Kanyag Tsering, a monk living at Kirti's sister monastery in India, citing sources in the region."Pretty much everyone from the Gelugpa sect attended," Tsering said, in a reference to the religious lineage of the exiled Tibetan leader, the Dalai Lama. "This was a major meeting."

A lot of security forces were sent, as Kirti was hosting the event," he said. "There were police in every street and alleyway, and the controls were very, very strict.

Hundreds of Kirti monks were forcibly removed from the monastery and sent for "patriotic re-education."

Tibetans say such campaigns require monks to renounce the Dalai Lama and pledge allegiance to the ruling Chinese Communist Party.

None of the Kirti monks really knows who these officials are, where they came from, or which government department they are from.

The self-immolation of a Kirti monk in March sparked a wave of burning protests, with the death of a Tibetan nun on Nov. 3 the most recent.