LONDON, Oct 25, 1995; (AFP) - A London-based Tibetan support group said Wednesday that China had carried out a purge at Tashilhunpo, one of Tibet's principal monasteries, installing hardline leaders to replace arrested or deposed moderates.

The Tibetan Information Network (TIN) said the purge was aimed at regaining Chinese control over the selection of the Panchen Lama, Tibet's second most senior lama.

The new Beijing-appointed leaders of the monastery, said TIN, include a monk who last ruled the monastery during the cultural revolution, and a hard-liner committed to a crackdown on anti-Chinese dissent in Tibet.

Both, said the group, are under the leadership of Lobsang Gyaltsen, a long-time opponent of the previous Panchen Lama, who died at Tashilhunpo in 1989.

The Panchen Lama was the highest-ranking lama to have remained in Tibet after the Dalai Lama fled to exile in India in 1959, and was one of two Tibetans promoted by Beijing to a national leadership level.