YUSHU, Qinghai, April 28 (Xinhua) -- More than 120 Tibetan monks from the Thrangu Monastery in China's quake-hit zone of Yushu Wednesday held a mass prayer service to mourn the dead.
It is the largest religious activity ever held in the predominantly Tibetan prefecture, since the 7.1-magnitude earthquake jolted the area April 14, local officials said.
On a grassland near the airport of Yushu, Qinghai Province, the monks sat on the ground and chanted prayers.
Lodroe Nyima Rinpoche, the living Buddha of the monastery, said before the service that it was being held to mourn thousands of the quake victims and to pay tribute to soldiers who helped the monks in the rescue and the recovery of religious observances.
The 700-year-old monastery was almost completely destroyed by the 7.1-magnitude earthquake and aftershocks, in which at least 2,220 people have been confirmed dead.
A row of prefabricated wooden homes and military tents dotting the grassland make up of the temporary settlement for the monastery's monks.
Twenty-one of the monastery's 230 monks died in the quake.
The monks living in the "tent temple" of Thrangu are among more than 100,000 people left homeless by the quake. About 87 monasteries in Yushu were damaged, with the Thrangu Monastery and two others completely destroyed, according to the rescue headquarters.
