The quake’s epicenter was in Tibet’s Shigatse region—home to the Panchen Lama one of the top figures in Tibetan Buddhism—located around 50 miles northeast of Mount Everest.

There have been 29 earthquakes with magnitudes of 3 or higher within 200km of the Shigatse quake in the past five years, all of which were smaller than the one that struck on Tuesday morning. In November 2023, a magnitude 5.6 earthquake shook northwestern Nepal, killing at least 138 people and injuring dozens.

President Xi Jinping has ordered all out rescue efforts after at least 95 people were killed and another 130 injured when a magnitude 6.8 earthquake