The paper discusses the recent developments of the Sino-Tibetan relations after the large-scale anti-Chinese protests in spring 2008. It mentions the reaction of the international community to the protests and the three rounds of dialogue between the representatives of the Dalai Lama and Chinese officials. The author argues that under current conditions the perspectives for any advance are ambiguous as the Chinese side is not willing to compromise on the sensitive issue of its Tibet policy.
The paper deals with important elements of Tibetan identity. The first part is devoted to the general issues of Tibetan identity, i.e. the shared religion (Tibetan Buddhism), language, the myth of the origin of Tibetans, ethnographical features (food, dress), the territory inhabited by Tibetans. It discusses issues related to the existence/non-existence of pan-Tibetan identity and the strong regional identities. The secondpart concentrates on the issue of regional identity in Amdo (north-eastern part of Tibetan Plateau), mainly in the area around the Labrang (bia brang) monastery. The identity of Amdo Tibetans is represented by distinctive myths of origin, special dialect and also in the realm of folk religion. Especially mountain cults play an important role in the constitution of micro-identity of individual tribes. The local identity near the Labrang monastery is being established also through the net of relations between individual reincarnations (Tib. tulku, sprul sku) of Labrang and the sedentary and nomad Tibetan communities. This traditional relationships (in Tibetan called lharde, lha sde, „divine community“, and mirde, mi sde, „human community“) are also now in function. The other lev el of religious identity centered around the Labrang monastery is the web of relations between the main monastery (in Tibetan magön, ma dgon, „mother monastery“), i.e. Labrang, and over 90 smaller monasteries in the wholeAmdo area which are subordinated branches (in Tibetan, gönlag, dgon lag , „monastery limbs“) of Labrang. The interethnic aspect of the constitution of Tibetan identity plays also an important role in the ethnically diverse region ofAmdo with strong presence of Muslim Chinese (Hui) and Han-Chinese population.