Buddhist services in the Sera Monastery have resumed after being suspended due to the riot on March 14 in Lhasa, capital of southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region.

About 380 monks in the Sera Monastery attended a two-hour service on Sunday. The monastery management staff said Tibet's Communist Party chief Zhang Qingli had talked earnestly with monk representatives. The communication played an important role in restoring services and establishing a normal life and religious practice.

Zhang visited the monastery on Friday, telling the monks that the Communist Party committee and government of Tibet would protect the legal rights and interests of patriotic and devout monks and nuns.

"We have a good environment to practice religious services. We shall abide by the law and shall not be cheated by separatists," said Pubu Cering, a monk of the monastery.

He said most of the monks in the monastery were patriotic and loved their religion.

Tubdain Cewang, vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the Tibet Regional People's Congress, said Lhasa's monasteries were recovering from the riot, with religious activities returning to order, and would reopen to tourists in the near future.

(Xinhua News Agency April 22, 2008)