The 11th Panchen Lama hosted a prayer ritual for the victims in the devastating earthquake in northwest China Tuesday morning.

Prayers were chanted in the Xihuang Temple in downtown Beijing to guide the souls of those who died in the earthquake through sufferings to heaven.

The ceremony was jointly hosted by Jamyang Losang Jigme Tubdain Qoigyi Nyima, a living Buddha and vice president of the Buddhist Association of China.

They also prayed for the people in quake zone to help them get through their sufferings, and for peace and security of the whole world, said a press release from the association.

Monks at the Lama Temple and the China Advanced Institute of Tibetan Buddhism attended the ceremony.

People of different religions have held prayer ceremonies for the quake-affected people since the 7.1-magnitude earthquake rocked the Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Yushu, Qinghai Province, on Wednesday.

The Buddhist Association of China and the China Taoist Association held prayer ceremonies on Friday and Saturday in Beijing.

Also on Friday, many mosques in Qinghai held fund-raising prayer ceremonies for quake-affected people.

According to the State Administration for Religious Affairs on Monday, the religious groups have donated about 20 million yuan (US$2.93 million) to the relief effort in Yushu.

The 11th Panchen Lama, also vice president of the Buddhist Association of China, made a 100,000-yuan donation on April 16.

(Xinhua News Agency April 20, 2010)