Panchen Lama Bainqen Erdini Qoigyijabu, one of Tibetan Buddhism's spiritual leaders, on Thursday prayed for people affected by the earthquake in Nepal and southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region. [Special coverage]
The Panchen Lama, vice president of the Buddhist Association of China, donated 200,000 yuan (32,800 U.S. dollars) to the affected areas through the association.
Presiding over a dharma assembly in Yonghe Lama Temple in downtown Beijing that lasted one and an half hours, the Panchen recited from scriptures and prayed with 210 monks from the Lama Temple and an elite Buddhist college.
The Panchen Lama is the highest-ranking lama after the Dalai Lama in the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism.
More than 5,000 people lost their lives in Nepal and more than 10,000 people were injured in the 8.1-magnitude quake that struck the Himalayan country on Saturday.
The death toll in neighboring Tibet stands at 25, with four missing and 797 injured.
