(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-04-11 19:35

"Monks had always lived in the ancient bungalows since the Qing Dynasty before we moved into a two-floored building in 2004," he said.

The local government granted 10 million yuan (about US$ 1.4 million) for the 80 lamas to build a well-equipped residential building, neighboring the 200-year-old monastery, said Wang Hui, deputy director of Chengde Municipal Ethnic and Religion Bureau.

"Life used to be inconvenient. We even had to go afar for a bath as we only had one public bathroom," Tunglaga said, sitting in his own apartment with a living room, a praying room and a private bathroom.

However, now, modern facilities, like air-conditioners and televisions, had been installed in the traditional style building, he said.

A 26-year-old lama named Bayartu bought a computer three years ago as he saved money from the government subsidies. The Internet had been offering a world as broad as the sutra to him, Bayartu said.

He started to type the sutra into the computer for better preservation and learning.

Better living conditions guarantees better learning, said Losang Shiqung, a 45-year-old Tibetan lama came from southwest China's Qinghai province following his teacher in 1989. Now he has become a teacher of the young monks.

"I've made progress on sutra studies during this time," said Losang Shiqung in Chinese, who speaks fluent Tibetan, Mongolian and Chinese.

"Study will never stop until I become a Buddha, and praying for the victims will never stop until the violence cease," He said, counting Buddha beads, in the quite ancient building, half of which is Tibetan traditional building while the other half is in Qing Dynasty style.

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