Entering any Tibetan Buddhist monastery one may feel overwhelmed, struck with awe. But the worshipping seems much more pleasant at the Sepa Monastery which is hidden in deep mountains on the right bank of Tongtian RiverÑthe upper reach section of the Yangtze, in Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Qinghai Province.

A closer observation can tell that the pleasant feeling comes from the brightness inside the main hall of the monastery, as well as from the lush woods around its buildings, which present a sweet greenness rarely seen at such an elevation as over 3,700 meters above sea level on the “roof of the world.”

The main hall, which features a giant statue of Padma-Sambhava, an ancient Indian Buddhist monk who played a critical role in spreading Buddhism in Tibet in the eighth century, is illuminated not only by traditional lamps burned with yak butter, but also by natural light coming through the roof windows. This design, unique to the monastery, relieves the worshipper or visitor from awe often stemming from the dark inside a traditional lama temple.

Renqing Cering, the living Buddha and abbot of Sepa Monastery, claims that the design was his invention. “I applied some modern illuminating techniques in my design,” he says, adding that he wanted the main hall, which was built in 1994, to be bright so that “people can take pictures inside.”

Now 57 years old, Renqing is the 14th reincarnated living Buddha of Sepa, a 700-year-old monastery of the Sagya sect, which prevailed in Tibetan areas in the 13th century. Leading some 48 lamas in the monastery in a small village of 80 households on a sunny mountain slope, the abbot is also reputed for his interest in advanced farming techniques.

“When our technicians come to give lectures to the villagers, the living Buddha will serve as our interpreter, putting what we say in mandarin to Tibetan and help extend the techniques,” says Ma Hengjie, head of the work team to extend science and technology among ethnic minorities under the Qinghai Association for Science and Technology based in Xining, the provincial capital 800 km away from Yushu.

In fact, Ma says, Renqing’s keen interest in the new techniques has made the work team base its technical extension in Yushu on the Sepa Monastery. “He was the first to introduce new strain of grain and herbicide in this area in the early 1990s, and the unit yield went up from 140 to 200 kg per mu (15 mu is one hectare),” Ma says.

As the living Buddha believes in self-reliance, each of the lamas of the monastery has to farm four mu of land. Now the monastery is able to feed itself with several tons of surplus grain every year. “When the villagers had misgivings about the herbicide, I assured them that the monastery will cover their losses with our surplus grain if they failed to reap as much barley as they did the previous year because of the weed killer,” Renqing says.

“The living Buddha’s words are more convincing than ours, since he is well respected here,” Ma says. He and his colleagues admirably call Renqing “a living Buddha of science and technology.” The living Buddha has just picked four relatively better educated young villagers to be trained into agricultural technicians and veterinarians for the village.

“The grain output used to be very low in this area,” Renqing says. “And we used to blame the low yield to the high altitude and adverse natural conditions here. Then I learned that advanced techniques can help increase the output and I became interested.” He went to the provincial association for science and technology for advice during a visit to Xining in 1990. Hence his indissoluble bond with science.

Aside from raising the output of farm produce, Renqing has also made great efforts to plant trees on the once barren mountain slopes and install running water pipes for the villagers. He has even managed to build a garden in which he succeeded in cultivating some flowers and fruit trees, such as pears and apples.

“It’s very difficult for the saplings to survive here, as the winter in Yushu may last seven or eight months a year,” he says. “But I just persevered over the years, and the surrounding environment has become much more friendly.”

Born in a pauper’s family in Chengduo County of the prefecture, Renqing does not think his seemingly secular concerns run in contradiction with Buddhism. “What I cultivate my moral character and accumulate merit for as a Buddhist is to repay a debt of gratitude for my parents who have nurtured me,” runs the first two lines of a Buddhist hymn Renqing wrote, which is inscribed on the outer wall of the main hall.

“The Ôparents’ here are referred to the people,” he says. “All I have done is just for the purpose of improving our people’s living standard, which I think conforms to the Buddhist doctrines.”

Renqing believes he is a born Buddhist. “I was identified as the soul boy of the 13th living Buddha of Sepa Monastery when I was only three years old,” he says. The lamas looking for the late abbot’s reincarnation got an inspiration from the Sagya Monastery in Tibet, which is the “mother” temple of the sect, and followed a donkey to Renqing’s shabby house several hundred miles away from Sepa.

Although it was his first time to see that animal, the little boy surprised everyone at the sight of the donkey, as he called his mother, “Our donkey is back.” Renqing then passed a series of tests, and convinced all that he was the authentic master of Sepa Monastery.

He suffered a lot during the Cultural Revolution, when his monastery was ruined and he himself was forced to do physical labor in the village. But, says Renqing, “I did not lose hope even in the darkest days, quite sure that I would be restored as the living Buddha again.” He also mastered carpentry and bricklayer’s skills, which laid a technical foundation for the reconstruction of his monastery later.

As soon as he was rehabilitated in the late 1970s, Renqing took a tour to Lhasa, Xining, Chengdu and Beijing. “I went to various monasteries and temples in these cities, and became more confident in the thriving of my monastery after the trip,” he recalls. He raised the money to rebuild the first hall of the temple in 1982, and won the prefecture government’s approval to have it reopen to the worshippers in 1984.

To make the pilgrimage more convenient, Renqing moved the monastery from atop the mountain halfway down. “Now the monastery is enjoying a far better time than decades ago, even better than the period before it was ruined,” he says.

As for those who had persecuted him during the Cultural Revolution, Renqing says he did not ask them to apologize. “It was no individual’s fault or crime, but the whole nation was suffering,” he says. “I think one should look forward rather than bury himself in the past.”

Nor does he confine the worshipping in his temple to the masters of Sagya sect only. Instead, he has the most representative masters of every sect of Tibetan Buddhism enshrined in a special room of the main hall.

“You see more sects in Tibetan areas in Qinghai, Sichuan, Yunnan and Gansu than in the Tibet proper,” observes Ran Guangrong, a scholar in Tibetan Buddhism based in Sichuan. “The reason is obvious. When one sect began to prevail in Tibet, it would often suppress other sects, often cruelly. But such religious persecution became less severe in those Tibetan areas on the rim of Tibet, so the sects managed to survive by being marginalized.”

Renqing says he is satisfied with the government’s religious policy. “Buddhists of different sects are getting along very well here in Yushu,” he says. “People’s living standard has also improved tremendously.” In the past many local people were so poor that they could not even afford a pair of trousers, while the windows were covered with paper rather than glasses. “Now we are much better off.”

The living Buddha’s only complain is that there are too many snowstorms in winter, which often devastate livestock and properties, even human lives. He also wishes that the prefecture will become more accessible, as it takes at least 13 hour car ride from Xining to Jiegu, the center of Yushu.

As vice-chairman of the prefecture committee of the People’s Political Consultative Conference, Renqing is now raising money to run an orphanage near the village, and looking for means to increase the Sepa villagers’ cash income. “I think scientific farming is very promising,” he says.