By Mark Stone, China Correspondent in Beijing
A Tibetan Monk with British citizenship has been "assassinated" in the Chinese city of Chengdu.
Choje Akong Tulku Rinpoche, 73, was well known within the Buddhist community.
The founder of the first Buddhist monastery in Britain, he was killed in a residential district of the western Chinese city on Tuesday, according to a statement by local police.
It claimed the monk was with his nephew and a driver when they were involved in a dispute over money.
All three were stabbed to death. The perpetrators, also said to be Tibetan, have been arrested.
"Following a verbal dispute between the two sides, the three suspects stabbed the three victims to death with knives they were carrying," the police statement read.
"They went to the victims home to negotiate at 11am on the day of the case. The two parties had a verbal quarrel and fight. Three suspects then stabbed the three victims.
"After the arrest, the three suspects confessed the killing of the three victims. This criminal case is undergoing investigation at the moment."
Akong founded the Samye Ling Monastery on the banks of the River Esk in Scotland in 1967.
His younger brother is the abbot of the monastery and released a statement on its website.
"To all dear friends of Samye Ling and Choje Akong Tulku Rinpoche, I am very, very sorry to inform you all that tragically, my brother Choje Akong Rinpoche, my nephew and one monk who was travelling with them, were all assassinated in Chengdu," it read.
"Rinpoche's body has been taken to hospital where a post mortem will be carried out. That is all the news I have so far. If I receive further news I will let you know."
Sky News understands that UK consular officials, likely to be based at the British consulate in Chongqing, are currently trying to establish the facts of the case in Chengdu.
The British Foreign Office in London has confirmed the death of a British national but has not identified the victim.
According to the victim's brother in Scotland, Abbot Lama Yeshe Rinpoche, the Dalai Lama, Tibet's spiritual leader, has been informed of Akong's death. He is understood to have known the victim.
Akong was born in 1940 and fled to India following the Chinese occupation of Tibet.
In 1980 he founded ROKPA International, described on its website as a humanitarian aid organisation.
Part of his role in the organisation was to expand humanitarian visits to Tibetan areas of China and Nepal.
It is not clear if he was on such a visit when he was killed.
In order to sustain his humanitarian work, Akong managed to maintain unusually stable relations with the Chinese government.
He is credited for seeing the opportunities presented by China's 'open-door policy' of the 1990s. This allowed him to visit China freely.
In 1992, he was a key figure in choosing the person who could succeed the Dalai Lama.
With the agreement of Beijing, Akong brought Apo Gaga, then seven years old, from a remote village to the Tsurphu Monastery near Lhasa where he was installed as the 17th Karmapa Lama - the second most important figure in Tibetan Buddism after the Dalai Lama.
The Kamapa Lama later fled Tibet for India amid concerns that Beijing was using him for their own political gain.
In June 2011, British Home Secretary Theresa May honoured Akong for his role in the contribution that refugees have made to British society in the 60 years since the UN Refugee Convention was formed.
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