Picking up a just-lit butter lamp in front of Gesar Square in the heart of quake-hit Gyegu Town, 28-year-old Nanze pauses to stare at the flickering flame as a chilly wind blows.

Almost two weeks after an earthquake struck Yushu prefecture of Qinghai Province on April 14, tons of yak butter in plastic bags and pots of different sizes lay alongside a blue tent with more than 600 burning butter lamps inside.

People of the Tibetan ethnic group light up butter lamps at a square in quake-hit Yushu.

 

Sitting beside them are monks in crimson cloaks and other volunteers. They wipe the empty lamps clean, fill them with freshly boiled yak butter and replace the cotton wicks after each lamp burns out.

"The lamps help the deceased find their way to the land of bliss in their afterlife," said Nanze, who only said he ran a small business in Qinghai provincial capital Xining.

Despite the freezing cold outside, Nanze wore only a black T-shirt in the tent, where the butter lamps have filled the tent with both flickering and a defiant warmth.

"Without the butter lamps, people would be lost in the darkness at the end of their lives," he said.

As of Sunday afternoon, the earthquake had claimed 2,220 lives, and 70 others are still missing.

At the Yushu racecourse and Gesar Square, hundreds of butter lamps can be seen burning through day and night to mourn the dead.

Nanze arrived in Yushu, where his mother still live, with his best friend Mala on April 15 after driving from Xining for more than 12 hours.

"We went past the Yushu racecourses on our way back. Everything was in ruins, and I just couldn't help but cry," said Nanze, the father of an 18-month boy. His aunt, uncle and nephew also died in the earthquake.