BEIJING (Reuter) - China has jailed a U.S.-based Tibetan music scholar visiting the Himalayan region on a U.S. scholarship to 18 years for spying, local radio reported Friday in a broadcast monitored by the British Broadcasting Corp.

Ngawang Choephel, 30, who had been touring Tibet as a Fulbright scholar studying traditional music, was detained by the Chinese authorities in Tibet last August.

He confessed to having been sent to Tibet by "the Dalai (Lama) clique" on behalf of an unnamed foreign country to conducting espionage activities, the report said, referring to the region's exiled god-king.

He was visiting "under the pretext of collecting information on Tibetan folk songs and dances," the radio broadcast said.

"In accordance with the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China... The Intermediate People's Court of Xigaze Prefecture sentenced Ngawang Choephel to an 18-year prison term for committing espionage crime, with a four-year deprivation of political rights," the radio said.