Dharamsala, April 28 (IANS) Three Tibetans died in Saturday’s earthquake in Nepal and there is no contact with the Tibetans settled in Walung region of the Himalayan nation, the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) said on Tuesday.
Walung region is at the border of Nepal and Tibet.
In Kathmandu district, Libing Sendrak Rinpoche’s monastery suffered severe destruction. Likewise, many nunneries in the area have also reported damages.
One nun died in the earthquake, while three nuns sustained severe injuries in the area, the CTA said, quoting a Kathmandu Office of Tibet statement.
It said there has been much damage to property but minimum loss of lives of Tibetans in Nepal.
A CTA spokesperson told IANS that the Office of Tibet has collected information from seven Tibetan settlement offices spread across the mountainous country.
It said the walls of Tibetan homes in Lo-Tserok settlement in the remote trans-Himalayan Mustang district developed cracks. Fissures in fields and agricultural lands have also been reported.
A building collapsed in Kimtrol, where two Tibetan brothers were staying in a rented room. One of them died while the other received severe injuries and is currently admitted in a hospital.
In Boudha and Jorpati areas in Kathmandu, it said a building housing 37 Tibetan families sustained severe damage and was in danger of collapsing.
A 30-year-old Tibetan named Chime from Boudha died after the walls collapsed on him during the earthquake.
Many people from Boudha have reported damage to their homes and rented houses.
The Office of Tibet has not been able to contact the settlement offices of Pokhra and other frontier regions like Dothang, Manang, Tsum and Nubri. Private sources, however, have confirmed that there was no loss of life or major damage to property.
Expressing his profound grief, Tibetan Prime Minister Lobsang Sangay said: “The earthquake has resulted in extensive damage to life and property in Nepal and its adjoining countries like Tibet, Bangladesh, Bhutan and India.”
The toll in the devastating 7.9-magnitude earthquake was 4,347 on Tuesday with search operations continuing for survivors under the rubble and extrication of bodies.
Nepal is home to more than 20,000 Tibetan refugees who have been staying here since the Dalai Lama fled to India in 1959.
The Tibetan administration in exile is based in the northern Indian hill town of Dharamsala.