A monk from the Chinese mainland committed suicide after having apparently murdered a fellow monk in a Taiwan hotel Wednesday morning, as they visited the island, said police in Hsinchu City, western Taiwan.

The police said they believed Chun Ru murdered Jing Ran, another monk, and then jumped to his death from the 13th floor of the Forte Hotel, director of the third Hsinchu police station, who would only give his surname Huang, told Xinhua.

The police did not discuss any motive for the apparent murder-suicide.

Huang said his station received a report at 7:50 a.m. from the Xuan Zang Culture and Education Foundation, which had invited the monks to Taiwan.

He said a crime scene investigation found that Jing Ran, whose face showed signs of traumatic force, had been dead for a long time when his roommate, Chun Ru, jumped from the hotel's top floor.

Hotel video showed no other person had entered the room during the period when the murder apparently occurred and Chun Ru committed suicide between 6 a.m. and 7 a.m.

The monks were from Ling Gu Temple, based in eastern Jiangsu Province, of which Nanjing is the capital. Jing Ran was chief of the temple, while Chun Ru was the temple supervisor, in charge of administrative affairs.

They had been invited to Taiwan by the foundation's university, officials of the Nanjing government said Wednesday.

Both were members of a six-member delegation of the Ling Gu Temple, and Jing Ran was the delegation head. The delegation entered Taiwan Monday to take part in a series of activities and will return to Nanjing Saturday.

(Xinhua News Agency January 14, 2009)