Kathmandu, July 8 - A 40-year-old Indian has been detained by police for trying to recruit nearly a dozen children from a remote village in northernmost Nepal, touching the border with Tibet.

Lodoe Singhe, who was arrested Monday in Sankhuwasabha district, told police he was a resident of Dehradun city in India's Uttarakhand state.

Singhe, a lama or Buddhist priest, had been working in the Shakya Monastery in Kalimpong town.

He had visited two remote and underdeveloped villages - Hatiagola and Chepuwa - which have no roads and electricity and require five days walking from the district headquarters.

The villagers are mostly Sherpas, people of Tibetan origin, who are extremely poor and virtually illiterate.

Police said the yellow-robed Singhe had promised the villagers that their children would be educated in the Kalimpong monastery and returned home.

'There were 13 children with him,' Deputy Superintendent of Police Kosh Raj Pokhrel told IANS.

'We found the parents had little knowledge about where the children were being taken or what would happen to them. We also found Singhe did not have any document to prove his claim.'

The police official said Singhe came under suspicion due to his companion, a 17-year-old boy called Yunduk Bhote.

'Three years ago, some children were taken away from Chepuwa village and their parents were told they would receive education in the Shakya Monastery,' Pokhrel said.