Reporters of China’s Xinhua News Agency are informed by the Cultural Department of southwest China’s Tibet Autonomous Region that 130 million yuan RMB consists of the central government allocation and local finance as well as 40 million from fund from cities and prefectures of the region have been invested into protecting the traditional intangible cultural heritage items in T.A.R. since 2005, in which year the protection work launched. After 10 years’ effort, a number of endangered intangible cultural heritage items are well inherited and revitalized now.

Gyeji, the head of Intangible Cultural Heritage Office of T.A.R. Cultural Department has introduced on June 15, 2016 that central government allocation and local finance were mainly spent doing survey and research on list of intangible cultural heritage items of national and regional level in TA.R., overall and systematically recording, saving, processing and publishing information, building database, as well as subsidizing representative inheritors carrying out activities.

According to Gyeji, over 100 thousand transcripts, 1500 boxes of video tapes and 40 thousand photos are gathered. 10 intangible cultural heritage categories including folk literature, traditional music, dances, arts, skills, medicine and others consisting almost 800 intangible cultural heritage items are already discovered through surveys.

Furthermore, incorporating with the digital resources construction work of national cultural information resource sharing project, multimedia digital work on The 8 Traditional Tibetan Drama, Tibetan Dancing Arts and Gesar Epic are finished. Meanwhile, texts, photos, videos and other first-hand information from surveys and researches are all filed and classified, 3 intangible cultural heritage databases of county, city (prefecture) and region levels have finished construction.

In order to promote protect and inherit traditional intangible cultural heritages ecologically and livingly, 30 teaching and learning places have been listed into the first batch of region level inheriting base for intangible cultural heritages, near 4 million yuan RMB have been put into carrying out activities and perfecting base facilities and equipment.

Profited from a series of protection measures, a number of endangered traditional intangible cultural heritage items have been effectively protected and inherited. Up to now, a directory system of state, region, city (prefecture) and county levels is constructed; 89 pieces of master works of Tibetan astronomical almanac and other field have been selected into state level directory of representative works of intangible cultural heritages and 323 listed into region level directory; Gesar rap artist Tsering Dradul and other 67 Tibetan traditional intangible cultural heritage inheritors are recognized as state-level inheritors and 350 recognized as region level inheritors.

(One US dollar equals 6.2066 yuan RMB)