Monks Bolster Earthquake Relief

Long after bulldozers have been silenced and rescue workers have retired to their tents, the only sound in earthquake-battered city Jiegu, China, is the barking of dogs that have lost their homes and owners. As the smoke from a thousand campfires filled the air early one morning, solitary figures shuffled through darkness, heading nowhere in particular. Some, like Tsai Ba Mao, 63, went to a tent off the city's main square, where Buddhist monks created a makeshift temple. The Chinese government has undertaken an aggressive relief effort, but just as striking is the highly visible operation of Buddhist monks, thousands of whom traveled far from Tibetan areas of China. They distribute packaged biscuits, tend huge barley vats and dig for bodies. Like their makeshift prayer tent, much of that help has been uncoordinated, and for the moment, tolerated by a government suspicious of grassroots organizing - and organized religion.

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