Tibet quake toll climbs to 1144
Hundreds of victims of an earthquake that struck western China were cremated yesterday as necessity forced Tibetans to break with burial traditions. About 1000 monks chanted prayers as the bodies were set on fire on a mountain beside Jiegu, the hardest-hit area by Wednesday's earthquake. While the cremation took place, rescue workers searched through rubble for any remaining survivors. Officials said the death toll had climbed to 1144. The quakes struck an ethnic area where Tibetans traditionally perform sky burials, which involve chopping a body into pieces and leaving it on a platform to be devoured by vultures. But Genqiu, who like many Tibetans goes by one name, said the numbers made that impossible. "The vultures can't eat them all," he said at Jiegu monastery, where the bodies were prepared for the cremation by being carefully wrapped in colourful blankets and piled three or four deep on a platform. Monks were not able to give an exact number of bodies burned.