Thumbs Up Like + Share this Video! Click here for more Tibet News www.youtube.com/TibetArchive - Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Broadcast: 09/10/2012. Reporter: Stephen McDonell News Link: www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2012/s3607238.htm In the last year, nearly 50 Tibetans have died after setting themselves on fire in protest at Chinese rule and we have rare footage of what is happening there, but be warned this story contains disturbing images. Transcript LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: In the remotest regions of China, inhabited by the country's Tibetan minority, an appalling uprising is under way. In the past year more than 50 monks have died after setting themselves on fire to protest against government repression. Their uprising is mostly hidden from public view because journalists and TV cameras are usually barred from visiting either the Tibetan Autonomous Region or the neighbouring provinces. But China correspondent Stephen McDonell travelled undercover to western China to prepare this report. And a warning: this story contains images of self-immolation. STEPHEN MCDONELL, REPORTER: In the remote Tibetan regions of western China, there is much that haven't changed for centuries. But behind these tranquil scene there's are simmering tensions. Some Tibetans are so disenchanted with Chinese rule that their protests are taking a shocking and extreme form. After dousing themselves in flammable liquids, more than 50 people - mostly young monks - have set themselves on fire. In the last 12 months at least 42 have died. The Chinese government has been in damage control. LIU WEIMIN, CHINESE FOREIGN MINISTRY SPOKESMAN (translated): We believe that the recent series of events have clearly been masterminded and stirred up by someone behind the scenes. STEPHEN MCDONELL: The head of the Indian-based Tibetan government in exile was in Australia earlier this year. LOBSANG SANGAY, TIBETAN PRIME MINISTER IN EXILE: The blame and solution lies with the Chinese government, and self-immolators have made it very clear. We want basic freedom like any human being, like any Australians. STEPHEN MCDONELL: The Tibetan plateau is, for the most part, a no-go zone for foreign journalists. But we find a way to sneak into the area in Sichuan province which has seen the most number of suicides. Winter is coming and here nomads are on the move. They've broken camp in the high mountains and are heading to lower altitudes to prepare for the cold. It can be a hard life dictated by the elements, but they breed them pretty tough in the Himalayas. TIBETAN MAN (translated): What we are doing here is cutting grass for the yaks and sheep to eat in the winter time. This is still a very traditional Tibetan area. STEPHEN MCDONELL (speaking Chinese, translated): So your father's father was doing this, and his father too? TIBETAN MAN (translated): Yes, that's right. STEPHEN MCDONELL: This young man is proud of his heritage, which he says the bound up in Buddhism. TIBETAN MAN (translated): The most important thing in our lives is culture. It's in our work - everything. It comes from books so the monasteries are our most important source. STEPHEN MCDONELL: But there's much that people will not talk about openly. It's very difficult to get away from the authorities in Tibetan areas. In villages like this there are eyes and ears everywhere, so even if we can make contact with ordinary people and if they know about the immolations they don't really want to talk about it, especially not on camera. Yet if you spend enough time here, there are those who will speak. We find a monk in a small mountain house helping a poor family. He's certainly heard about his young brothers killing themselves nearby. BUDDHIST MONK (translated): They feel unsettled in their hearts, that's why they set themselves on fire. STEPHEN MCDONELL: A short distance from where we meet this monk is Aba. Footage secretly filmed inside this locked-down town shows it chocked full of military police and SWAT teams. The streets are barricaded as if in a war zone - something akin to Northern Ireland at the height of the Troubles. Aba town alone counts for 24 self-immolations. It's hard to imagine the desperation that leads young Tibetans to protest by taking their lives in this most agonising way. LOBSANG SANGAY: We have discouraged drastic actions, including self-immolations, but unfortunately Tibetans seem to be saying this is the only form of protest left, because any other form of protest the consequences is similar - you get arrested, tortured and often die.

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