The Chinese government has paid high attention to the protection of historical and cultural legacy of Tibet, spending a large sum on the projects for preserving Tibetan cultural relics, as learned at the directors' meeting of the bureau of cultural heritage under the Tibet Autonomous Region in northwestern China, according to Xinhua on Monday in Lhasa.

The country has spent, so far, 330 million yuan, or about 40 million US dollars, on the renovation project for the three major cultural relics of the Potala Palace, the Norbulingka Palace and the Sakya Monastery. Now a 190-million-yuan investment has been spent on the renovation project, which has effectively protected the historical and cultural relics left over by thousand years of history.

As an autonomous region with rich historical and cultural relics in the country, Tibet boasts more than 2,000 sites. The central government has always paid high attention to the protection of Tibetan cultural relics. The Chinese government invested 53 million yuan in the first-phase maintenance project during the period from later 1980s to early 1990s. Following this, the government spent 330 million yuan on the renovation project for the three major cultural relics. By the end of 2003, the government invested more than 600 million in all in the preservation work.

Under the high attention paid to by the central government and the autonomous region, key Tibetan cultural relics received effective protection during the "10th Five-Year Plan" (2001-2005), said Rinqen Cering, director of the local bureau of cultural heritage. At the present, the maintenance project is under smooth operation. The remaining work will be finished by the end of this year. Approved by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, the renovation project including Zongshan Ruins in Gyantse is under preparation.

Rinqen Cering said the cultural relic departments at various levels in Tibet made a general investigation of 10 Tibetan relics including the Jokhang Temple with a preservation plan worked out. The major cultural relics sites, involving the mausoleums of ancient Tibetan kings are listed in a renovation plan during the 10th Five-Year Plan.

Rinqen Cering said Tibet will implement six major protection projects of cultural relics in the next five years, including "10 key protection projects of cultural relics", "survey on cultural relics", "the construction of cultural relic archives and database", "the building of a security system for the protection of cultural relics", the "investigation and protection of important historical and revolutionary relics", and the "survey and preservation of cultural relics in border areas", in an effort to boost an all-round development in the protection of Tibetan cultural relics.

By People's Daily Online