A six-member team left China's eastern Nanjing City Sunday for Taiwan to seek more information of an incident in which two mainland monks died last week.

A monk from the Nanjing-based Ling Gu Temple in Jiangsu Province is believed to have committed suicide after apparently murdering a fellow monk in a Taiwan hotel in Hsinchu last Wednesday.

The team, including Master Long Xiang, head of Nanjing Buddhist Association, two religious affairs officials and the two family members, were scheduled to return to Nanjing on Wednesday.

They would seek more information about the incident from the Taiwan police and deal with the aftermath of the deaths.

Police believe Chun Ru, 54, murdered Jing Ran, another monk, and then jumped to his death from the 13th floor of the Forte Hotel.

Jing Ran was chief of the Ling Gu Temple, while Chun Ru was in charge of administrative affairs. They were members of a six-member delegation of the temple to visit Taiwan last Monday at the invitation of the Hsuan Chuang Cultural and Educational Foundation.

Monks with Ling Gu temple said Chun Ru had become unsociable and aloof in recent times and fellow monks, including Jing Ran, had been trying to consoling him.

Members of the delegation said Chun Ru had felt uncomfortable during the flight on Monday and Jing Ran volunteered to share a room with him in order to take care of him.

They said Chun Ru lost his documents for entering Taiwan one day before the incident.

A crime scene investigation found that Jing Ran, whose face showed signs of traumatic force, had been dead for some time before Chun Ru killed himself.

(Xinhua News Agency January 19, 2009)