He told reporters on Thursday that none of the 225 monks in his monastery participated in the recent riots.

"Our monks have been well educated and will not do things like that," he said.

"What the rioters did was neither rational nor lawful.

"If they really meant to do good for Tibetans, they should have done something to promote education, rather than hurting people and damaging property," 81-year-old Garzang Chinlai said.

Buddhism preaches about performing good deeds and refraining from harming or killing people, he said.

"Buddhists are not meant to commit violence. It was illiteracy and ignorance that led to some people becoming involved in the riots."

Garzang Chinlai, who has devoted himself to ethnic education in the region since the late 1970s, said the prosperity of Tibetans lies in improving the literacy rate.