China orders monks out of quake zone

April 22, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Associated Press

BEIJING

Earthquake survivors say it was the Tibetan monks who helped first, bringing food, pitching tents and digging through rubble after disaster hit far western China a week ago, killing thousands.

Now, the Buddhist monks who responded first are being pushed out of the disaster area and off of state media — apparently sidelined by Beijing’s unease with their heroism and influence.

Monasteries were given verbal orders the last two days to recall their monks. Amid hours of coverage for China’s national day of mourning Wednesday, no monks were visible in the official proceedings.

It was a jarring omission in light of their contributions to the weeklong rescue and relief effort after the quake, which killed 2,064 people and injured more than 12,000 others.

Chinese military officials said this week nearly all the roughly 12,000 soldiers who rushed to the quake area struggled with altitude sickness, and many had trouble communicating with Tibetan survivors. Tibetan-speaking monks didn’t have those problems.

They flooded into Yushu within hours, on motorbikes and packed in the back of trucks.