BEIJING, Feb 15 (AFP) - Three Tibetans attempting an overland escape into neighbouring Nepal froze to death during the treacherous Himalayan journey, the Tibet Information Network (TIN) said in a statement Saturday.

The three who included a 21-year-old nun, a 14-year-old boy and an eight-year-old girl died of cold and hunger during a snowstorm on Tibet's Shargung pass around January 20, it said.

The trio were part of a group of 27 Tibetans attempting to escape China-ruled Tibet to Kathmandu, where the United Nations arranges safe passage for Tibetan asylum-seekers to an established community of exiles in India.

The nun, Tashi Choedon, was one of four women in the group from the Shungsep nunnery, 60 kilometres (37 miles) southwest of Lhasa, which is noted for a history of opposition to Chinese rule, the London-based Tibet watchdog said.

All 24 survivors of the trek though frostbitten, some to the point of requiring surgery were eventually handed over to the UN High Commission for Refugees in Kathmandu.

They each paid 500 to 850 yuan (60 to 102 dollars) for the services of a guide, who accompanied them from Lhasa to Nepal, TIN said, quoting group members.

A similar crossing at the Larkhye pass last December claimed the lives two Tibetans, a boy and a girl both aged 13.

More than 400 children under the age of 14 fled from Tibet to Nepal last year in hopes of entering monasteries or government-run schools for exiles in India, where enrolment rates are much higher than in Tibet, TIN said.

Chinese authorities, wary of Tibetan nationalism, teach no classes in Tibetan after primary school and are carrying out a political crackdown in the region's monasteries and nunneries.

Beijing views religion as a key source of anti-Chinese sentiment, as it considers the Dalai Lama the country's spiritual leader a separatist enemy of the state.

The Dalai Lama has headed a Tibetan government-in-exile in Dharamsala, India since 1959, when he fled Tibet after an failed anti-Chinese uprising.