The Chinese leader has made his first visit to Tibet as president as authorities tighten controls over the Himalayan regions traditional Buddhist culture, accompanied by an accelerated drive for economic development and modernised infrastructure.
State media reported on Friday that Xi Jinping had visited sites in the capital, Lhasa, including the Drepung monastery, Barkhor Street and the public square at the base of the Potala Palace that was home to the Dalai Lamas, Tibets traditional spiritual and temporal leaders.
Xis visit was previously unannounced publicly and it was not clear whether he had already returned to Beijing.
He visited in 2011 before being promoted to president. The latest visit is thought to be the first by the countrys leader in more than three decades.
China has in recent years stepped up controls over Buddhist monasteries and expanded education in the Chinese rather than Tibetan language. Critics of such policies are routinely detained and can receive long prison sentences, especially if they have been convicted of association with the 86-year-old Dalai Lama, who has lived in exile in India since fleeing Tibet during an abortive uprising against Chinese rule in 1959.
China does not recognise the self-declared Tibetan government-in-exile based in the hillside town of Dharamshala, and accuses the Dalai Lama of seeking to separate Tibet from China.
Meanwhile, domestic tourism has expanded massively in the region during Xis nine years in office and new airports, rail lines and highways have been constructed.
Chinas official Xinhua news agency said that while in Lhasa on Thursday, Xi had sought to learn about the work on ethnic and religious affairs, the conservation of the ancient city, as well as the inheritance and protection of Tibetan culture.
On Wednesday, he visited the city of Nyingchi to inspect ecological preservation work on the basin of the Yarlung Zangbo River, the upper course of the Brahmaputra, on which China is building a controversial dam.
He also visited a bridge and inspected a project to build a railway from Sichuan province in south-western China to Tibet, before travelling on Tibets first electrified rail line, from Nyingchi to Lhasa, which went into service last month.
Xis visit may be timed to coincide with the 70th anniversary of the 17-point agreement that firmly established Chinese control over Tibet. The Dalai Lama says he was forced into signing the document and has since repudiated it.
It also comes amid deteriorating relations between China and India, which share a lengthy, disputed border with Tibet.
Deadly encounters last year between Indian and Chinese troops along their high-altitude border dramatically altered the already fraught relationship between the nuclear-armed neighbours.
That appears to have prompted the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, to wish the Dalai Lama well on his birthday this month on Twitter and say he also spoke to him by phone. That was the first time Modi has publicly confirmed speaking with the Dalai Lama since becoming prime minister in 2014.
In a statement, the advocacy group International Campaign for Tibet called Xis visit an indication of how high Tibet continues to figure in Chinese policy considerations.
The way in which the visit was organised and the complete absence of any immediate state media coverage of the visit indicate that Tibet continues to be a sensitive issue and that the Chinese authorities do not have confidence in their legitimacy among the Tibetan people, said the group based in Washington DC.
