By Steven Mufson - Washington Post Foreign Service

Wednesday, September 11 1996; Page A16 The Washington Post

XIAHE, China Wrapped in maroon robes, partially hidden in the shadows cast by flickering candles, hundreds of Buddhist monks sit in rows and murmur prayers. Dozens of sets of Buddha's eyes gaze beatifically from portraits on the walls and statues in front of the hall of oneof the most private sanctuaries of the Labrang monastery.

Outside, Tibetan pilgrims descend from nearby grass-covered mountains and slowly make their way around the sprawling complex. Along the outside walls, they spin large painted wheels which they believe send prayers to heaven with every turn.

Still other pilgrims lie face down on the ground and make small circles in the dirt with their hands. Then they stand up, take a step forward and prostrate themselves again to demonstrate their devotion to their Buddhist order.

The Labrang monastery is the biggest Tibetan Buddhist monastery outside Tibet, with more than 1,500 monks and 35 temples. The monastery lies at the foot of a mountain gateway to a grassy plateau. A small river runs through this town, which is about 7,000 feet above sea level, and the air is clear. The setting attracts an odd mixture of Buddhist monks, Hui Muslim traders, Tibetan pilgrims and American, European and Israeli backpackers.

Many are drawn to this corner of China's western Gansu Province because it doesn't feel much like China at all. This enchanted valley lies far from the construction cranes of China's big cities,the belching smokestacks of heavy industry, the rice fields and the monotonous assembly lines in toy and textile factories.

The spirit of Tibetan Buddhism also sets the place apart. The Buddha taught that the first part of the eightfold path to nirvana was the recognition that life is suffering, caused by desire for personal gratification. But in China today, personal gratification is the guiding principle for most people. And while the Buddha preached cultivation of the mind through freedom of thought and freedom from cruelty, China is a nation where thought is restricted and cruelty a part of daily life, from the killing of pet dogs in Beijing to the summary execution of criminals in the south.

Yet, even the Labrang monastery has been unable to escape the slings and arrows of Chinese politics. Only 20 years ago, much of this monastery complex lay in ruins, a victim of the Cultural Revolution's campaign against the "four olds" old customs, old habits, old culture and old thinking and of a 1958 campaign to put religion under the thumb of the central government. A fire in the 1980s nearly destroyed much of what the Cultural Revolution had not.

Today, the monastery is rebuilding with government approval and partly with government money. But the monastery's relationship with Beijing remains delicate: Police poke their heads into the temples, occasionally detain monks for questioning and examine the size and placement of photos of the Dalai Lama, Gelugpa Buddhism's revered god-king and a critic of the Beijing government. Both the Dalai and Panchen lamas belong to the Gelugpa school of Tibetan Buddhism, which has been the dominant political group in Tibet for about 400 years.

The Labrang monastery is one of six large lamaseries of the Gelugpa sect, whose monks are known as the "yellow hats" for the distinctive head coverings they wear. It has six academic institutes, several large temples, living Buddha residences and lama and monk living quarters. Built by a living Buddha named Jiamuyang in 1709, it possesses more than 10,000 volumes of Tibetan classics and countless smaller scriptures and historic relics. The current abbot came to Labrang when he was 4 years old and is considered the sixth incarnation of Jiamuyang. The day begins early here, with prayers starting at 5:30 a.m. and lasting about five hours. Near midday, two monks climb atop the central temple and blow a horn to call thesenior monks to prayer.

In the afternoons, classes often meet. One recent afternoon, a group of young monks, barely teenagers, joked around while waiting for the start of a class on prayers to say for the sick.

Monks usually join the monastery when they're young, sometimes only 5 years old. At that age,they must be interviewed and recognized by a living Buddha. Later, aspiring monks must pass entrance examinations.

The routine of the monastery was broken in 1958 when the Chinese Communist Party attempted to put all religion under its control. Religious groups and leaders were forced to offer allegiance first to Beijing. For Tibetan Buddhists, the crackdown was further complicated by events in Tibet, where rising tensions led to a Chinese army invasion and the flight into exile by the Dalai Lama, who supported Tibetan independence.

A local resident who works in a shop along the main street of Xiahe said that he lived at the monastery between the ages of 8 and 14. In 1958, the monastery was closed and soldiers were stationed in the town. Like other monks, he was forced to work on a communal farm in the mountains. He wasn't allowed to wear his robes or carry his prayer beads.

"I wouldn't have gone anywhere without my prayer beads," he said. "It would be like going into the street without shoes."

Two years after the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution began and there were renewed attacks on the monks, he gave up. "I thought there was no hope to be a monk anymore, " he said. At the age of 24, he got married. "Sometimes I regret it," he said. "Having a family isn't that easy, and life in the monastery was good."

Others held out. One monk said he was sent from place to place. The government sent prostitutes to try to tempt him into breaking his vow of celibacy. He was jailed and beaten. But today he is a senior monk.

After Deng Xiaoping consolidated his power in 1978, the Chinese government eased its policy on religion, once again allowing people to worship within certain political boundaries. By that time, only a small fraction of Labrang's 3,000 monks were left.

But a new generation of monks is rejuvenating the monastery. One 22-year-old is typical. When the monastery was formally reopened by the previous Panchen Lama in the early 1980s, he attended and was so inspired that he joined five years later at age 12. "I joined of my own free will," he said. "Every time I met a monk, I had a good feeling." At the time there were only 800 monks, most of them elderly; now there are almost twice as many.

The monastery also appears to be on sound financial footing. Its vast rebuilding project has been boosted by contributions from overseas. An American woman helped rebuild the imposing Kongthang pagoda, which was destroyed during the Cultural Revolution. Inside, the walls have 26,000 small packets of scripture, 9,000 of which were hidden by monks during the Cultural Revolution and the rest of which are copies of the originals.

Although the Deng era's easing of limitations on religion has allowed a rebirth of the monastery, it still faces delicate political problems.

Since late last year, the government has been cracking down in Tibet on people who display photographs of the Dalai Lama.

Last year the Dalai Lama angered Beijing by claiming that he had located a 6-year-old boy as the new incarnation of the Panchen Lama, Tibetan Buddhism's second-most-important lama and one who has long been more closely allied with Beijing than the Dalai Lama. The Chinese government rejected the claim and used a Qing Dynasty procedure to install its own choice.

The embarrassing dispute prodded the government into intensified denunciations of the Dalai Lama and a crusade against photographs of him. Here in Labrang, a large portrait of the Dalai Lama was taken down, though scores of smaller photos remain inside the temples.

"People here were afraid that the entire monastery would get into trouble," said a monk who wore a button with a photo of the Dalai Lama under his robes. The abbot was a member of the government-approved search committee, one of whose members leaked word of their choice to the Dalai Lama. "Our abbot has been following the Chinese line because he's head of this monastery and the fate of the monastery depends on how he acts," the monk said.

But he added that the Dalai Lama's support runs deep. "If there is one lama at this temple, there's one follower of the Dalai. If there are two lamas at this temple, then there are two followers of the Dalai. There's no confusion about that."

CAPTION: A Tibetan Buddhist monk walks past a structure with prayer wheels at the Labrang monastery, a major religious site that is being rebuilt after years of neglect and persecution.

CAPTION: A young monk of the "yellow hats" school of Tibetan Buddhism awaits beginning of a class on saying prayers for the sick.