Quake-ruined monastery gets prefab home
Source: Xinhua |
April 30, 2010, Friday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
LOADING boxes of instant noodles on to a military truck, young Tibetan monk Badingwenjiang bid farewell to the ruins of Thrangu Monastery.
"I don't want to leave, but there is no choice. In fact, just looking at the devastation reminds me of my dead classmates," said Badingwenjiang, 22, who has studied at the monastery's Buddhism Institute for two years.
Nestled among hills of China's remote Tibetan plateau, the 700-year-old Thrangu Monastery was severely damaged in the magnitude-7.1 earthquake that rocked the Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Yushu on April 14.
The quake left at least 2,220 people dead and more than 100,000 homeless, including 8,000 monks and nuns.
About 200 monks from Thrangu Monastery have moved into a row of prefabricated wooden homes on a prairie 20 kilometers from the ruins.
"Here will be our temporary monastery before a new one is built. It doesn't matter if it is not as grand and beautiful as the old one," said Lodroe Nyima Rinpoche, living Buddha of the monastery.
Military trucks loaded with Buddhist relics, prayer items, food and clothes dot the "prairie monastery." Six bronze statues of Buddha, each 2 meters high, stand in the middle, facing snow-capped mountains.
Lodroe Nyima Rinpoche said the old monastery was reduced to rubble, with 40 percent of its relics damaged or buried. The devastation amounted to a loss of 190 million yuan (US$28 million).
"I don't want to leave, but there is no choice. In fact, just looking at the devastation reminds me of my dead classmates," said Badingwenjiang, 22, who has studied at the monastery's Buddhism Institute for two years.
Nestled among hills of China's remote Tibetan plateau, the 700-year-old Thrangu Monastery was severely damaged in the magnitude-7.1 earthquake that rocked the Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Yushu on April 14.
The quake left at least 2,220 people dead and more than 100,000 homeless, including 8,000 monks and nuns.
About 200 monks from Thrangu Monastery have moved into a row of prefabricated wooden homes on a prairie 20 kilometers from the ruins.
"Here will be our temporary monastery before a new one is built. It doesn't matter if it is not as grand and beautiful as the old one," said Lodroe Nyima Rinpoche, living Buddha of the monastery.
Military trucks loaded with Buddhist relics, prayer items, food and clothes dot the "prairie monastery." Six bronze statues of Buddha, each 2 meters high, stand in the middle, facing snow-capped mountains.
Lodroe Nyima Rinpoche said the old monastery was reduced to rubble, with 40 percent of its relics damaged or buried. The devastation amounted to a loss of 190 million yuan (US$28 million).
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