Locals left confused by unruly monks
Updated: 2008-04-15 08:15
"But a few lawbreakers will have to be dealt with. Like anyone else, they have to abide by the law," he said.
The Labrang monastery is one of the six most important lamaseries in the Yellow Sect of Tibetan Lamaism.
Meanwhile, in an effort to prevent future unrest, Garzang Chinlai, the most revered living Buddha at the Xiaxiu Monastery in Gannan's Maqu county, last week appealed for more education for young monks on history and religion, to stop them from being coerced into staging protests.
He told reporters on Thursday that none of the 225 monks in his monastery participated in the recent riots.
"Our monks have been well educated and will not do things like that," he said.
"What the rioters did was neither rational nor lawful.
"If they really meant to do good for Tibetans, they should have done something to promote education, rather than hurting people and damaging property," 81-year-old Garzang Chinlai said.
Buddhism preaches about performing good deeds and refraining from harming or killing people, he said.
"Buddhists are not meant to commit violence. It was illiteracy and ignorance that led to some people becoming involved in the riots."
Garzang Chinlai, who has devoted himself to ethnic education in the region since the late 1970s, said the prosperity of Tibetans lies in improving the literacy rate.
The living Buddha is a pioneer of promoting education in the region.
In the early '80s, herders living on the plateau seldom sent their children to faraway schools, he said.
Concerned with the state of primary education, he visited almost all of the herdsmen's families in the county in a bid to convince them to send their children to school.
Thanks to his efforts, the Mainrigma boarding school was set up in the grasslands, 70 km from the county seat, with the living Buddha as its honorary headmaster.
"Ethnic groups are held together by their language and character," Garzang Chinlai said.
"That's why I have devoted my life to promoting education to boost our culture."
Monks also need education, Garzang Chinlai said.
"Monks should have the desire to be literate and to live by a strict moral code. They should practice Buddhism and never get embroiled in violence."
Xinhua contributed to the story
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