A senior Chinese government official said fake living Buddhas were using donations to support pro-independence activities in Tibet and called on local authorities to take action against them, according to state media.
Local governments in Tibet should cooperate with their counterparts in eastern and central China and "take joint action to contain the phenomenon of fake living Buddhas," Zhu Weiqun, chairman of the ethnic and religious affairs committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, told state television Saturday.
The government is building a database of legal living Buddhas, and may eventually make it public, the online edition of the official China Youth Daily on Sunday quoted Zhu as saying.