Lhasa, november 2, 1995 - Xinhua News Agency

Repair work on Gandain monastery, one of the three largest monasteries in northwest China's Tibet autonomous region, is drawing to a close. Located in a valley about 50 km to the east of Lhasa, Tibet's capital city, the monastery was first built in 1409 by Tzong Khapa, a major reformer of Tibetan Buddhism, but was destroyed during the ten-year cultural revolution (1966-1976). In 1993, the central government allocated 26 million yuan for the monastery's repair. Thus far, 80 percent of the repairs on the buddhist sutra hall and 90 percent of the earthwork for two other major halls have been completed. interior decoration is expected to begin in the spring of 1996 after the cold winter and be completed by the year end, said an official in charge of the repair project. The project was conducted in line with a principal of restoring the original layout and combining modern science with unique ethnic characteristics in construction.