Chinanews, Nanning, Oct 15 – Chinese government has initiated a plan of providing aid to poor Buddhist monks and nuns in Tibetan-inhabited areas in the west region. As a result, more than 100,000 monks and nuns there have benefited from the government’s medical services and social security insurance.Most Tibetans live in Tibet, Qinghai and Sichuan in the west. Nearly all Tibetans believe in Tibetan Buddhism and attend religious rituals regularly. According to official figures, there are about 3,000 Tibetan Buddhist temples and 120,000 Tibetan Buddhist monks and nuns in China.Usually, the lives of the Tibetan Buddhists are supported by their families and the temples. The income of temples mostly comes from donors. However, since most temples are located in the sparsely populated west region where there aren't many people living there, the income made by these temples is rather limited.In the 1980s, Chinese government began to allow monks and nuns to participate in business activities, since then they have been able to generate more income to support their own lives. The policy has achieved positive results after its implementation. However, for monks and nuns who have lost their working capability or become handicapped, they still cannot benefit from such policy and remain living in straitened circumstances.In Longwu Temple, for example, there are about 400 monks and nuns. At present, 90% of the monks and nuns in the temple have signed up for the new rural cooperative medicare system. The 50 poorest monks and nuns in the temple are covered by the minimum living allowance scheme, whereby they can get 100-500 yuan of subsidy from the government every year, said Living Buddha Xiangzekanbu, who is deputy director of the temple's management committee.