BEIJING, Feb. 6 -- China has made significant achievements in protecting and spreading Tibet's magnificent traditional ethnic culture, especially in terms of the successful preservation, transmission and development of intangible cultural heritage.

    "I'm glad to see great attention has been paid to the protection of traditional ethnic culture," said 73-year-old Tseten Dorje, who was recently designated as a national representative of intangible cultural heritage.

Picture taken on May. 30, 2005 shows workers maintaining a building of the Norbulingka Palace. (Xinhua Photo)  Photo Gallery>>>

    Apart from endeavors of the central and local governments, efforts of folk artists are also indispensable. The artists contributed a lot to protecting and carrying forward the cultural heritage.

    As an essential part of the profound Chinese traditional culture, the luxuriant Tibetan culture has been nourished by generations of Tibetans. Largely, it descends by way of oral tradition of folk artists or local talents.

    As years pass by, death of folk artists and local talents puts the Tibentan culture in a hazardous situation. For this reason, in the 1980s emergency rescue groups were set up one after another to preserve and protect the region's folk art with the support of the central government. The groups collected a great amount of precious materials of music, dancing, singing, adage, drama, etc., carefully arranged and compiled them before publishing them in forms of literary classics, theses, monographs.

Photo taken on Aug. 13, 2008 shows children playing with a Tibetan opera performer wearing a mask. (Xinhua Photo) Photo Gallery>>>

    According to preliminary statistics, by visiting some 10,000 folk artists, a data bank with more than 10,000 photos, 100 video clips, 500 tapes, 10,000 songs, a 10-million-word document, was established. More than 1,000 academic papers and 30 monographs on traditional Tibetan culture were published.

    "I'm delighted as the younger generation is now able to carry forward the art of Tibetan opera," said Tseten Dorje.

    According to Nyima Tsering, head of Tibet local culture bureau, the Tibetan opera has applied for a stance among the Intangible Cultural Heritage list of the United Nations.

    As King Gesar was one of the great heroes in Tibetan history, his life has been widely celebrated orally among Tibetans for generations, turning the epic of King Gesar into the longest as well as the only living epic in the world. In 1979, a special body was established for arranging, saving, recording and publishished the Epic of King Gesar.

An artist performs the Tibetan opera to celebrace the Sho Dun Festival on the Potala Palace Square on Aug. 12, 2007. (Xinhua Photo) Photo Gallery>>>

    As a result, more than 20 volumes in Han language have also been published, and some of them were translated into foreign languages like Japanese, English and French.

    Protection of intangible cultural heritage gained full momentum after entering the 21st century.

    In 2002, 19 Tibetan counties were nominated as the "cradle of Tibetan folk art" and 2 villages as the "cradle of Tibetan-featured art". In 2005, a leading group for protecting Tibetan intangible cultural heritage was set up.

    In May 2006, the State Council issued the first list of China's intangible cultural heritage, among which a total of 25 items including Tibetan opera, Thangka painting, "King Gesar", Shoton Festival was encompassed. In June 2008, the second list was released with 28 items from Tibet.

    (Source: China Tibet Information Center)

Tibet completes census of ancient books

    BEIJING, Feb. 4 -- The Cultural Department of Tibet Autonomous Region has finished the census of Tibetan classics pilot program.

    A group responsible for the census work was set up in October 2008, and has by far deployed work in the Tibet Museum and Norbu Lingka and found both have a variety of Tibetan ancient books concerning Tibetan medicine, architecture, biography of celebrities which are preserved intact. Full story

Experts: it is good time to buy thangka

    BEIJING, Feb. 4 (Xinhuanet) -- The market of "thangka" -- a religionary scroll painting in Tibet -- has met a downslide after a collection fever over years, but experts suggest it is good time to catch the chance to buy them.

    Since Thangka was listed among the first batch of China's Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2006, its price has increased substantially. "Master Lotus," a piece accomplished in Qing Dynasty(1644-1911), was sold for 1,023,000 yuan at the Gutianyi auction house in Beijing in 2006. Full story