BEIJING: A Tibetan monk Wednesday set himself alight in China's Qinghai province but survived due to timely efforts by his temple's security guards, officials said.
Jamyang Palden, a monk at the Rongwo monastery in Tongren county in the province's Tibetan autonomous prefecture of Huangnan, walked out of the temple at 10.40 a.m., dressed in a gasoline-soaked cassock, a government spokesman said.
The monk then used a lighter to set fire to himself.
Temple security guards on duty rushed to put out the blaze and took the monk to hospital.
On Wednesday, Premier Wen Jiabao said China was opposed to "radical moves" taken by Tibetan monks, such as self-immolation, to undermine social harmony.
"The young Tibetans are innocent and we feel deeply distressed by their behaviour," Wen said.