Dharmsala, India ? The Dalai Lama called Sunday for his followers to protest peacefully against Chinese rule but said he would not order them to end demonstrations that have erupted into violence in Tibet and neighboring provinces.

Speaking from the Himalayan headquarters of Tibet’s government-in-exile, the Nobel Peace laureate said that he felt “helpless” in the face of a Chinese ultimatum for protesters to surrender.

“The deadline is at midnight tomorrow. So now every second it goes nearer,” he told reporters. “I feel very sad, very serious, very anxious. Cannot do anything. That is helpless.

“This is something like the people’s movement,” he said, calling himself just a spokesman for the Tibetan people. “Morally, I don’t want to demand ‘do this, do that.”‘

The violent clashes between Tibetan protesters and Chinese police threaten the Dalai Lama’s efforts to keep his campaign for Tibetan freedom pacifist, even as they focus the world on his cause.

The Dalai Lama has long insisted that only through nonviolence and a dialogue with China could Tibetans win greater freedom under Chinese rule. But his efforts have made little headway, and his people have grown increasingly restless – their anger and frustration clear in the recent violence in Tibet, and protests by Tibetan exiles around the world.

Protests spread from Tibet into three neighboring Chinese provinces Sunday as Tibetans defied a Chinese government crackdown.

Demonstrations widened to Tibetan communities in Sichuan, Qinghai and Gansu provinces, forcing authorities to mobilize security forces across a broad expanse of western China.

In Qinghai province, riot police sent to prevent protests set off tensions when they took up positions outside a monastery in Tongren. Dozens of monks, defying a directive not to gather in groups, marched to a hill where they set off fireworks and burned incense in what one monk said was a protest, according to an Associated Press reporter at the scene.

In a sign that authorities were preparing for trouble, AP and other foreign journalists were ordered out of the Tibetan parts of Gansu and Qinghai provinces by police who told them it was for their “safety.”

Meanwhile, climbers are being told by Nepalese officials that Mount Everest’s summit will be off-limits to the public from all sides during the first 10 days of May, so the Chinese can carry an Olympic torch to the summit without risking a high-altitude confrontation over Tibet’s future.

Expedition leaders and tour operators say they have been told by Nepalese associates who deal with the government that it intends to keep climbers off Nepal’s summit via south side routes from May 1 to 10, while China closes its northern side.

But they say Nepal is still negotiating with interested parties on whether the lower elevations can be accessed, and the final word is expected within the next day or two.