Efforts underway to restore quake-damaged Buddhist temples in southwest China's Xizang

Reconstruction plans are already underway to restore damaged Buddhist monasteries from a devastating earthquake earlier this month in southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region as part of post-quake relief efforts.

The 6.8-magnitude earthquake struck Dingri County on January 7, leaving 126 people dead, including two nuns, and 337 others injured. In total, six temples in the region suffered significant damage from the powerful earthquake.

A rite for the deceased took place in a makeshift sutra hall in Dingri County. For the mourning villagers, the monks with the Sengar Chode Monastery offer some consolation.

A short walk away is the monastery, now in ruins from the earthquake. Abbot Thubten recalls that fateful morning on January 7, when all the buildings collapsed except for the main hall, and that's where all 22 monks of the monastery happened to be.

"It's so fortunate we were in here for morning prayers. If we had been in the dormitory, we would have all been doomed," he said.

However, a more than 600-year-old nunnery was hit hard. Once Tserin Wangdui, party secretary of the Dingri County Sengar Chode Monastery management committee, spotted the damage from his office, he and a group of people rushed up the steep hill to the Dzongbu Temple. They were able to retrieve six nuns from the rubble, four of whom survived.

At the Sengar Chode Monastery, three thick walls, which embody 600-year-old murals, standing in the main hall have been assessed by experts to be important cultural relics that must be preserved. It will require special technicians to dismantle then rebuild the temple, all while leaving these ancient paintings intact.

Built in 1541, this Gelug monastery serves some 4,000 Buddhist believers in the region.

Standing amid the ruins, the abbot reflects on what transpired.

"Through this disaster, we should all realize that those who are alive must be even more united in the future," said Thubten.

Having gone through this ordeal together, the monastery's relationship with its government regulator is also said to have shifted.

"In the past, they sometimes thought we were here just to supervise them and had some opinions about it. But after we helped them with disaster relief this time, their perception of us has changed, and our perception of them has also shifted," said Tserin Wangdui.

Rebuilding an ancient monastery is, in many ways, even harder than constructing one from scratch. But it will be done because preserving culture and history matters. For the religious people in Xizang, seeing their treasured monasteries restored will be one more step towards healing.

Efforts underway to restore quake-damaged Buddhist temples in southwest China's Xizang

China and the United States are not economic adversaries, as decades of bilateral trade have brought mutual benefits to both nations, an American scholar said, adding that U.S. protectionist rhetoric overlooks the broader gains from U.S.-China economic engagement.

In a speech at the European Parliament in February, Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University, said that China is not an enemy of the United States, but rather a success story.

During his visit to attend the China Development Forum 2025, Sachs expanded on his remarks in an interview with China Global Television Network (CGTN).

"Trade with the U.S. and China during the past 40 years, and especially since the 1990s, has been mutually beneficial. China's rise has helped the United States to advance. The U.S. has helped China to advance. Yes, there are some places where competition from China has meant fewer jobs in the United States. There are many places where it has meant more jobs. For most of the American people, China's growth has been a big benefit. In trade, when certain sectors or places do get hurt by trade -- and that happens -- then they should be helped by regional policy or by redistributional policy, by social support. This is how a normal economy behaves," he said.

In the interview, the scholar praised China's regional development strategy and contrasted it with U.S. policy, arguing that Washington's protectionist stance overlooks the broader benefits of open trade with China.

"When China opened up the economy, it was the eastern part of the country on the coastal areas that benefited the most. So they created very creative ways to promote western China development, so that the benefits of development would also be shared in central and western China. That was a regional development policy that has been quite successful. The United States doesn't have such a policy. If we were as clever as China in its management of such issues, we would be much less protectionist. Trump is appealing to protectionism for particular parts of the American economy, neglecting the fact that the overall U.S. economy is a big beneficiary of U.S.-China open trade," Sachs said.

The China Development Forum 2025 is taking place on March 23-24 in Beijing under the theme "Unleashing Development Momentum for Stable Growth of Global Economy." The high-profile event has brought together 86 official delegates from multinational companies across 21 countries -- a record high.

China, US not economic adversaries as trade proves mutually beneficial for decades: US scholar