Dainzin, at 21, is regarded as one of the most promising lamas in the Gandan Lamasery, but the devoted disciple of the Tibetan school of Buddhism came to the lamasery in tears 15 years ago.

Dainzin was born to an ordinary farmer family in the Zhangduo Township, Dagze County of the Tibet Autonomous Region. His parents named him Dawa, meaning Monday, the day he was born.

His current name, meaning "guard of Buddhism", was given by his Buddhist master after he was admitted into the lamasery.

Dawa's parents sent him to the lamasery when he was six in the hope of relieving the family from misfortunes.

Dawa had been hospitalized that year with a serious bellyache after swimming in a pond near his home. Doctors in a Lhasa hospital said that the ache might be caused by purulence in his thorax as a result of infection by bacteria in the water.

Dawa recovered after a month in the hospital, but his father was then hospitalized due to a heart attack. Dawa's mother, Zhoigar, turned to an augur in a lamasery, who said that only sending a son of the family to a temple could prevent their misfortunes.

Dawa was the only son among the family's five children, but his mother said that at that time she found she could not resist the augur's advice.

Zhoigar recalled that the little boy, who had never been separated from his parents before, did not want to go to the Gandan Lamasery, and when he was sent in 1988, he would not stop crying.

Though Dawa, now Dainzin, has grown up to be tall and healthy, he also recalls that during the early days after he was sent to the lamasery, he would miss his family every day and whenever allowed to visit them, he would be reluctant to come back to the temple.

"At that time, I was really envious of my peers in the village who could enjoy days at school," Dainzin said. "But now all is OK. I'm not homesick anymore and I can concentrate on my religious studies."

Dainzin said his only concern besides his religious studies is his family. After his father died, the family burden all fell on his mother. So, whenever the lamasery allows him to have days off, he will go home to help his mother with farm work. The young lama also said he always gives the donations he gets at Buddhist rituals from pilgrims to his mother.

Like most of the other young lamas in Tibet, Dainzin enjoys listening to the radio and likes going around by bike in his spare time.

"It takes me more than half a day to go home on foot, but it only takes about an hour by bike," he said.

According to statistics from the regional religious administration, there are 40,000 lamas in Tibet, most of whom are young.

Young Tibetans enter lamaseries for various reasons, said Chilai Ragyai, a superintendent at the lamasery. While some are sent because of family difficulties in living, some choose to become lamas because of their failure to seek further mundane education or the failure of their marriage.

However, Chilai Ragyai added, most of the young lamas were influenced by their parents or relatives who hold deep faith in Tibetan Buddhism.

While most young lamas are willing to devote themselves to religious studies and abide by the regulations of lamaseries, Chilai Ragyai said, there were also some who chose to leave because of the temptation of the temporal life.

Last year alone, about a dozen young lamas left the Gandan Lamasery.

Like Dainzin, many young lamas are working very "diligently", as Dainzin's master describes him to be, in the hope of getting a degree of ge'si, the highest degree in Tibetan Buddhism that is similar to the doctor's degree of theology.