The devastating, 7.1-magnitude earthquake which hit the Yushu County in Qinghai Province on Apr 14 damaged five national-level and 23 provincial-level cultural heritage sites, reported China’s official Xinhua news agency May 27 and the official China Daily newspaper May 28, citing the State Administration of Cultural Heritage (SACH). Of these, the Gyana Mani stone piles complex at Xinzhai (or Sengza) Village, near the quake’s epicenter of Jiegu (Tibetan: Kyegudo) Township suffered major damages, the report added.
Also, within the same complex, a pagoda was badly damaged while the wall of a main prayer hall was cracked and several sections of Mani stone piles had collapsed, the report said.
The Xinzhai’s Mani stone piles, under state protection, were said to be first built in 1715. The area consists of 14 pagodas, two prayer halls, 490 prayer wheels and a Mani stone pile.
The report cited SACH as saying in a statement that in the Beidari Buddhist temple built in 642, another national heritage site, the stone cliff behind its main hall had begun to crack, threatening the structure.
And in the Sangzhou and Zangniang Pagoda temple built in 1030, the pagoda and the walls of temple halls were reported to have cracked, with the buildings’ foundations having sunk.
Besides, sections of buildings at three major Tibetan Buddhist temples in Yushu, under provincial protection, were reported to have collapsed, with the prefecture museum of Yushu having also got badly damaged.
Source : http://www.tibetanreview.net
