Rescue & Aid

Butter lamps burn in memory of victims

By YAN JIE (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-04-19 08:03

Butter lamps burn in memory of victims
A lama lights butter lamps in a tent in Yushu on Saturday to mourn the dead and pray for the injured in the aftermath of the quake. [Li Ziheng / Xinhua News Agency]

GYEGU, Qinghai -- The butter lamps that burned in the homes of Gyegu's residents before the devastating earthquake now burn in a blue tent.

Thanks to local resident Sonam Phuntsog, passers-by can enter the 10-square-meter makeshift shrine, where dozens of small cups are filled with oil to keep the lights burning in memory of their loved ones who died.

"Almost all of the local residents' homes have collapsed," Sonam Phuntsog, a 62-year-old local businessman, said on Saturday morning while watching the lights in the tent. "They cannot make the lights at home."

Tibetans share the tradition of using this religious ritual to pacify the souls of the dead.

People, almost all Tibetans, lined up in front of the tent's entrance to await their turn. An old Tibetan woman whispered to herself and sobbed as she left the tent. More mourners joined the queue.

Butter lamps burn in memory of victims

Outside the enclosure, 11 nuns and lamas draped in dark red robes were seated in two groups, making wicks out of cotton for the lamps.

Sonam Phuntsog spent 54,000 yuan ($7,900) on the butter, a food for Tibetans, to launch the roadside shrine near the town's King Gesar Square, which opened at 9 pm on Friday.

The spacious square in the centre of Gyegu town, administration center of Yushu county, is now crowded with tents lodging homeless quake victims and rescuers from other provinces.

The butter in the tent can keep the lights going for 49 days, said Sonam Phuntsog.

"Both Han and Tibetans can use the service here," he said, putting his palms together.