O'kying Chilai Doje, the 17th living Buddha of Garmaba, the white sect of Tibetan Buddhism, leftthe Curbo monastery in Lhasa of Tibet recently together with a small number people around him, a spokesman for the Information Office of the State Council said on January 7.

In his letter left at the monastery, O'kying Chilai Doje said that he went abroad this time to get the musical instruments of the Buddhist mass and the black hats that had been used by the previous living Buddhas of Garmaba.

This did not mean to "betray the State, the nation, the monastery or the leadership," he said in his letter.

The 15-year-old O'kying Chilai Doje became the 17th living Buddha of Garmaba at a ceremony of ascending the holly throne in the Curbo monastery in September of 1992 with the approval of the Administration of the Religious Affairs of the State Council.