China to restore quake-hit Tibetan monastery

YUSHU, Qinghai - China plans to restore a badly damaged Buddhist monastery in a remote northwest Tibetan region as a memorial to the 2,698 people killed by a devastating earthquake more than a year ago.

The government has approved the restoration of the ruins of the 750-year-old Trangu monastery and work there will begin soon, officials of Yushu Tibet autonomous prefecture of Qinghai province said on Monday.

The monastery, nestled among mountains near the township of Gyegu, was reduced to barely more than a mound of rubble by the earthquake. The foundations of the main hall and the scripture hall survived but were hardly recognizable among the crumpled walls and fallen roofs.