JIEGU, China — Tibetan monks in crimson robes dug through earthquake rubble alongside government rescue workers Friday, a startling image for a Chinese region long strained by suspicion and unrest.
The central government has poured in troops and equipment to this remote western region, but it is the influential Buddhist monks whom residents trust with their lives — and with their dead.
As the death toll climbed to 1,144, there was tension and some distrust over the government’s relief effort, with survivors scuffling over the limited aid.
“They have a relaxed attitude,” said Genqiu, 22, a monk at the Jiegu monastery, of the government-sent rescue workers. “If someone’s taking their photo, then they might dig once or twice.”
Since the quakes Wednesday, government relief efforts have been slowed by heavy traffic on the single main road from the Qinghai provincial capital, 12 hours away. On Friday, heavy equipment finally arrived.
“The disaster you suffered is our disaster. Your suffering is our suffering,” Premier Wen Jiabao said in remarks broadcast repeatedly on state TV.
Though the government was reaching out, many residents turned instead to the monks and their traditions, rather than a central authority dominated by the majority Han Chinese. The groups are divided by language as well as culture and religion.
Residents of the largely Tibetan town pointed out repeatedly that after the series of earthquakes Wednesday, the monks were the first to come to their aid — pulling people from the rubble and passing out their own limited supplies.
Yushu county, the area affected by the quakes, is overwhelmingly Tibetan — 93 percent by official statistics.
A few people were still being found alive. China Central Television reported that a 13-year-old girl was pulled from a toppled two-story hotel after a sniffer dog alerted rescuers.
And the state news agency Xinhua said a 43-year-old woman was rescued after being trapped for 50 hours with no food or water.
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