Some 70 people chanted Buddhist mantras in western San José Monday night to protest China's recent crackdown on Tibetan rioters.

The clashes have alarmed practicing Buddhists and Tibet sympathizers in Costa Rica. Gloriana Brenes, head of a Tibetan Buddhist center in la Guácima, northwest of San José, organized the march to call on Chinese authorities to renew dialogue with Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.

Brenes had planned to march to the Chinese Embassy, but the Ministry of Public Security closed the streets for “security” reasons, said spokesman Jesús Ureña. Holding candles and Tibetan flags, the protesters stood at the police blockades for nearly two hours and chanted, over and over, “ Om mani padme hum” – the most common Tibetan Buddhist mantra.

China flooded Tibet with security forces in mid-March to quell unruly Tibetan rioters. Tibetan exile groups said about 140 people died in ensuing clashes, while Chinese authorities put the number at about 22, according to press reports.

Costa Rica has joined the United States and other European countries in calling for dialogue between China and the Dalai Lama, who wants greater autonomy but not secession from China.

Brenes said President Oscar Arias, who won the Nobel Peace Prize two years before the Dalai Lama did, has not spoken strongly enough against human rights violations in Tibet.

“He has been tied because of his relations with the Chinese government,” she said. “We are not really keeping our word of being a peaceful country and respecting nature and human rights.”