A MEDIA tour to a riot-hit region in northwestern Gansu Province resumed after it was briefly interrupted by a group of lamas at the Labrang Lamasery yesterday.
An officer with the Information Office of China's State Council, the organizer of the tour, said the tour by the reporters would go ahead as scheduled.
About 20 lamas rushed out of a building at the Labrang Monastery in Xiahe, and gathered in a plaza in front of more than 20 Chinese and foreign journalists at around 12:30 p.m. yesterday.
The lamas left about five minutes later and reporters resumed their tour of the lamasery.
Gun'gyihu Jinba, deputy director of the temple's administrative office, said there were more than 1,000 Buddhist disciples in the temple and only a few had interrupted the tour.
"As you can all see, they offended our religious order," he said.
Living Buddha Dainkaicang, director of the Buddhism Chapter in Xiahe City, told reporters that the lamas were ignorant and were used by separatists. "They were hoodwinked and stirred up by the separatists. That was how the interruption happened," he said.
The Labrang monastery is one of the six most important lamaseries of the Yellow Sect of Tibetan Buddhism.
The reporters, including 11 from foreign media organizations such as the American Broadcasting Co., Reuters, the Russian News and Information Agency and the TV Asashi Corp. of Japan, were on a four-day tour of the Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture following the riots in Lhasa on March 14.
They are scheduled to visit Xiahe, Hezuo, Maqu and Luqu, the worst hit areas in the riots, to interview local residents, living buddhas and government officials.
Rioting, looting and arson occurred in the counties of Xiahe, Maqu, Luqu and Jone and Hezuo City in the Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture on March 15 and 16.
The riots saw 94 people injured, with economic losses of 230 million yuan (US$32.6 million). The injured included 64 police, 27 armed police, two government officials and one civilian, according to the local government.
(Xinhua)
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