CHINA: Tibetan monks pray for earthquake dead

Record ID: 610766

  • Title: CHINA: Tibetan monks pray for earthquake dead
  • Date: 19th April 2010
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Tibetan) 49-YEAR-OLD TIBETAN QUAKE SURVIVOR, CHEMZAN, SAYING: "When people died, it is not the end of suffering for them. So when my wife died, I can only rely on these monks to pray for her spirits. So since there is a such a good occasion like today, I can here to pray for her." TIBETAN MONKS WALKING AROUND PIT FOR CREMATION TIBETAN MONKS LOOKING AT PIT
  • Embargoed: 4th May 2010 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: China
  • Country: China
  • Topics: Disasters / Accidents / Natural catastrophes,Religion
  • Reuters ID: LVAEYGGIK6UZD8JPI5QVGQQB67UA
  • Story Text: More than a thousand Tibetan monks gather with quake survivors to pray for the victims of the quake-hit Yushu county.
    More than a thousand Tibetan monks gathered at the hilltops of quake-hit Yushu county in the western Qinghai province as Chinese President Hu Jintao flew to remote and ruined county to speed relief distribution on Sunday (April 18).
    The monks dressed in red Buddhist robes, chanted prayers for more than two hours as dozens of bodies packed in body bogs were brought there by their relatives.
    The monks, many of whom came on pickup trucks from other Tibetan regions, estimate they have cremated more than 1,000 bodies on a grassy hillside outside Gyegu city, the county seat for Yushu.
    The sheer number has forced them to abandon traditional "sky burials", in which the dead are left for vultures to eat.
    Most of the cremation for unidentified bodies had been done on Saturday (April 17) in a similar ceremony where monks prayed for the dead.
    Monks said they believed there were about 10,000 people who died from the quake, a significant jump from the official figures which are close to 1,500.
    "We are praying for their spirits in the afterlife. We hope that they would be able to free themselves and go into the afterlife. I feel that there would be about 10,000 people dead because of this disaster," said Tibetan monk Bajing (pron: bah-jing).
    The Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama on Saturday asked Beijing if he could visit the site to comfort the victims.
    He has not returned to China since fleeing Tibet in 1959 after a failed uprising, and is unlikely to get permission to go.
    Like the Dalai Lama, many Tibetan monks said they were devastated by the tragedy which has killed the mostly Tibetan populace in the region.
    "I personally feel sad and terrible now. For the people in the Tibetan area, we had never experienced such a severe disaster. So I am full of grief and I feel this is so cruel," Bajing added.
    Hu had cut short a visit to South America to fly to the disaster area, but his presence would not necessarily be warmly welcomed by the Tibetan people of the region.
    Tibetan Buddhists have often been at odds with China's ruling Communist Party, which is wary of the ties between the monasteries and Tibetan exiles.
    Some local Tibetans said they didn't believe the official death toll estimate, saying many more had died without being officially counted.
    For now, local Tibetans are just relying on their religion and faith than the government to get through the trauma of losing their loved ones during the disaster.
    "When people died, it is not the end of suffering for them. So when my wife died, I can only rely on these monks to pray for her spirits. So since there is a such a good occasion like today, I can here to pray for her," said 49-year-old Chemzan (pron: champ-zen), who brought the body of his wife to the prayer ceremony on the hillside on Sunday.
    The quake was centred in the mountains that divide the southwestern province of Qinghai from the Tibet Autonomous Region. The Tibetan plateau is regularly shaken by quakes, though casualties are usually minimal because so few people live there.
    The harsh conditions on the Tibetan plateau -- Gyegu is about 4,000 metres (13,000 feet) above sea level -- where temperatures are below freezing at night and strong winds blow constantly, mean reconstruction is urgent.
    Donations from provinces have reached 225 million yuan ($32.97 million), Zuo Ming, an official at the Ministry of Civil Affairs said on Sunday.
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