By RUTH YOUNGBLOOD

BEIJING, Feb. 23 (UPI) -- A Tibetan Fulbright scholar was detained while trying to make a video about the traditional music of the Himalayan region and his whereabouts are unknown, a human rights group said Friday.

The report of Ngawang Choephel's detention in the city of Shigatse, seat of Tibet's second-highest religious figure, came from an eyewitness who provided the information to the Dalai Lama's government-in-exile in north India.

"It is not uncommon for Tibetans to be detained and imprisoned without any formal charges for many months while the case is being investigated," said Bhuchung Tsering, spokesman for the Washington- based International Campaign for Tibet.

"It is during this time, when the prisoner is being questioned, that the most intensive torture and abuse routinely occurs," Tsering said.

Choephel, 30, who attended Middlebury College in Vermont prior to departing for Tibet last year, was one of 125 Tibetans who have studied in the United States since 1988 as part of a Fulbright program approved by the U.S. Congress.

"Being born Tibetan, I feel I am responsible for preserving the history and diversity of Tibetan oral tradition," said Choephel's funding proposal.

While Choephel's proposed documentary was purely cultural and without political content, the Campaign for Tibet said, "He drew attention from local authorities who often questioned him, and ultimately detained him. "

Choephel's family left Tibet in 1965 at the onset of the cultural revolution and six years after the dalai lama, spiritual head of Tibetan Buddhism, fled to India with thousands of supporters following an abortive anti-Chinese uprising.

Kathryn Culley, an American photographer who traveled with Choephel during the early part of his trip, said, "Inside Tibet things went a bit differently than planned. Ngawang was pretty nervous about being there, and it showed."

On one occasion, musicians agreed to be filmed performing songs even though police had not granted permission, Culley said.

When she left Tibet Aug. 22, Choephel told her he planned to visit Shigatse and look for musicians there.

Tourists were ordered to leave the city and the Tibetan capital of Lhasa amid the controvery over China's naming of a 6-year-old boy as Tibet's No. 2 religious figure, rejecting the child chosen by the Dalai Lama.

Reports of sporadic anti-Chinese protests have surfaced since the enthronement of Beijing's candidate in December.

Ten Tibetan prisoners, including four monks who protested against China's interference in the naming of the panchen lama, overpowered their Chinese guards last month and escaped, leaving one guard dead, according to the London-based Tibet Information Network.

A bomb was set off in mid-January outside the home of a Tibetan lama regarded as sympathetic to Beijing, the group confirmed, with one person seriously injured.

As a refugee, Choephel has no passport, and traveled on an Indian identity certificate to the United States. The Chinese government does not recognize the certificates designating the holder as a "Tibetan refugee" and requires Tibetans to use "Overseas Chinese" travel papers when visiting Tibet.

China accused the dalai lama Friday of rocking Tibetan stability by pursuing independence for the region and "attempting to sabotage" the selection of the panchen lama.

"He is not a benevolent, kind lama, but a 100 percent traitor betraying China and its people," said a commentary in the official Tibet Daily.

The dalai lama's choice, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, has not been seen since June and is believed to be in the custody of Chinese officials in Beijing.

The commentary said the dalai lama is "not the religious leader or representative of the Tibetan people," but a tool of hostile Western forces supporting Tibetan separatism.