Lamas and Buddhist disciples said Sunday that they hope O'kying Chilai Doje, the 17th Living Buddha of Garmaba, the white sect of Tibetan Buddhism, will soon return to Tibet to master Buddhist ceremonies four years after he left China.

They expressed the hope while attending an annual ceremony at the Curbo Monastery to worship the Buddha.

The 17th Living Buddha left the Curbo Monastery in Lhasa of Tibet in 2000 after leaving a letter saying that he went abroad to get the musical instruments of the Buddhist mass and the black hats that had been used by the previous Living Buddhas of Garmaba.

This did not mean to "betray the State, the nation, the monastery or the leadership," he said in his letter.

O'kying Chilai Doje became the 17th living Buddha of Garmaba at a ceremony of ascending the holly throne in the Curbo Monastery in September 1992 with the approval of the Administration of the Religious Affairs of the State Council.

All the display and furnishings, including his then 14-year-oldpicture, car models presented by his disciples, and books, in the room where the 17th Living Buddha once lived have been unchanged, lamas at the monastery said.

Chilai, a lama who had attended to the 17th Living Buddha for four years before he left China, said he cleaned the Living Buddha's room every day.

"All we do is to wait for the return of the Living Buddha," Chilai said.

"Most of the Buddhist lamas in the monastery believe what Garmaba said in his letter," said lama Gama Lozhoi Sangbo, director of Curbo Monastery Democratic Management Committee. "We desperately need him here."

(Xinhua News Agency May 30, 2004)