By Zhou Yan

I wonder what Sakyamuni, the founder of Buddhism, would say, had He witnessed the violence in Lhasa and other Tibetan-inhabited regions of western China in the past week.

Though the commandments followed by Tibetan Buddhists vary, they are all based on the "four precepts": no killing, stealing, adultery, or lying.

The Gelugpa School, or the yellow sect, of Tibetan Buddhism, headed by the Dalai Lama, is better known for its strict observance of these commandments.

But what happened in Lhasa and several Tibetan communities in Gansu and Sichuan provinces seems to prove otherwise.

No killing? It makes one's hackles rise when knife-wielding rioters took to Lhasa's streets last Friday, hacking, beating up and burning 13 innocent people to death.

Not to mention those who narrowly escaped death: a six-year-old boy trampled by rioters and almost suffocated to death; a middle-aged couple who suffered burns and fractures but managed to escape by jump out of their second-floor window.

Latest counts by the Tibetan regional government said 325 others were injured in the riot.

No stealing? The damages they did, by setting fire to buildings, torching dozens of police cars and private vehicles and looting banks, schools and shops, were worse than thefts.