Lamas in southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region are trying to make their tranquil routine lives a little more well-rounded, with a football.

Putting down their Buddhist scriptures and changing the scarlet robes into something like the scarlet Portuguese national football team kit, they enjoy a game on a field behind their meditation hall.

It is not a scene from Shaolin Soccer, a comedy that smashed box office records in Hong Kong last year. It is a training class for the football team of Sera Monastery in Lhasa, capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region.

Founded last April, the team of 20 players, all lamas, has enjoyed great fame not only among monastery football teams, but also among football fans in Tibet.

Tibet boasts more than 1,700 temples with 47,000 lamas. Sera Monastery, Ramoqe Temple, Zhebung Monastery and Johkang Monastery all have their own football teams, which have about 20 young lamas each.

Daindar is the captain of the Sera team, and a self-proclaimed "huge fan" of French football star Zinedine Zidane. He said that the first time he came across football was when he and his brother watched a TV program about the World Cup champion of 1998 at their relatives' home in Lhasa.

"From then on, we have been in love with this great game and we found some young lamas in the monastery who were also fond of football, so we began to play the game secretly," said Daindar.

The first football they bought cost them 10 yuan (US$1.2) and it went flat after being used only a few times. Then they bought a more expensive one and their skills improved quickly, he said.

However, Rome was not built in a day: the team's first public "show" turned out to be a big blow out.

"Our first rival was a student team from a Tibetan medical college in Lhasa, but we lost the match with a score of one to eight because of lack of training and knowledge of game rules," said Zoinzhu.

"But it is still a wonderful experience. At first, the students were very surprised to know their rivals were lamas and they showed much respect and patience with us in the match," said Daindar.

So far, the team is still self-trained and they usually have training classes and go out to play games with other teams on weekends.

In addition, they also learn football skills by watching the premier league football games on TV from Britain, Spain, Germany and Italy.

Meanwhile, all team members work hard on their Buddhist studies and consciously refrain from breaking the rules and regulations of the monastery when they leave the temple to play football.

(China Daily December 8, 2003)