The butchers’ shops on Beijing Road were just beginning to re-open for business on Friday, but residents of the politically charged Tibetan capital have started to grumble about a new threat – inflation.

At one of the modest shops, which opened on Thursday for the first time since rioting in Lhasa on March 14, two women complained loudly about the price of yak meat, which sold for Rmb11 per half-kilo before the riot but was priced at Rmb13.50 ($1.92, €1.22, 96p) on Friday. “We are being ripped off,” one said.