BEIJING, July 18: Thousands of Buddhists have converged on a Buddhist monastery in western China mistakenly thinking the Dalai Lama would be there, underscoring the devotion many feel toward Tibet's exiled spiritual leader.
Tibet activists and the government-in-exile said up to 9,000 had converged on Kumbum Monastery -- known in Chinese as Taersi -- in Qinghai province, which encompasses part of the Tibetan plateau and is home to a large ethnic-Tibetan population.
It was not clear where the rumour started. The Dalai Lama fled into exile in India in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule.
''It's also extremely puzzling to us,'' said Thubten Samphel, a spokesman for Tibet's government-in-exile. ''He is in Dharamsala,'' he added, referring to the Indian hill station where he is based.
No one answered the phone at the monastery's main office, but a government official at the Religious Affairs Bureau in Xining, the provincial capital, said the reports of thousands were unfounded.
''The number cannot be that big. There are 300 people at most,'' he said, adding that it was the usual mix of tourists and adherents coming to pray.
But reports from the International Campaign for Tibet and the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy said thousands of devotees had been arriving since the weekend.
Although many had returned home, others who had not heard that the Dalai Lama would not be there were still arriving.
''It shows how cut off they are from the rest of the world -- the Chinese authorities have made such stringent attempts to block information flow that Tibetans had no way of checking whether the rumours were true or not,'' said Kate Saunders, of the International Campaign for Tibet.
The Dalai Lama said earlier this year he wanted to go to China to visit Buddhist landmarks. A top religious official said China might approve such a visit if he abandoned his dreams of independence for Tibet, which Chinese troops invaded in 1950.
China and the Dalai Lama's representatives resumed contacts in 2002, but the process has yet to see concrete results and Chinese authorities still refer to the Dalai Lama as a separatist bent on splitting the country.
REUTERS
Tibet activists and the government-in-exile said up to 9,000 had converged on Kumbum Monastery -- known in Chinese as Taersi -- in Qinghai province, which encompasses part of the Tibetan plateau and is home to a large ethnic-Tibetan population.
It was not clear where the rumour started. The Dalai Lama fled into exile in India in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule.
''It's also extremely puzzling to us,'' said Thubten Samphel, a spokesman for Tibet's government-in-exile. ''He is in Dharamsala,'' he added, referring to the Indian hill station where he is based.
No one answered the phone at the monastery's main office, but a government official at the Religious Affairs Bureau in Xining, the provincial capital, said the reports of thousands were unfounded.
''The number cannot be that big. There are 300 people at most,'' he said, adding that it was the usual mix of tourists and adherents coming to pray.
But reports from the International Campaign for Tibet and the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy said thousands of devotees had been arriving since the weekend.
Although many had returned home, others who had not heard that the Dalai Lama would not be there were still arriving.
''It shows how cut off they are from the rest of the world -- the Chinese authorities have made such stringent attempts to block information flow that Tibetans had no way of checking whether the rumours were true or not,'' said Kate Saunders, of the International Campaign for Tibet.
The Dalai Lama said earlier this year he wanted to go to China to visit Buddhist landmarks. A top religious official said China might approve such a visit if he abandoned his dreams of independence for Tibet, which Chinese troops invaded in 1950.
China and the Dalai Lama's representatives resumed contacts in 2002, but the process has yet to see concrete results and Chinese authorities still refer to the Dalai Lama as a separatist bent on splitting the country.
REUTERS
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