The 8th Tibet People's Congress was held in Lhasa on Nov. 12, reporting that Tibet Autonomous Region has made remarkable progress in cultural undertakings during the eleventh five-year plan period (2006-2010), and people have received greater benefits from the cultural development.
Public culture service system preliminarily established
Tibet actively promotes a number of programs in the interests of the public, such as "Rural Library", "Culture Information Resources Sharing" and "Film Projection at Villages", through which various recreational and sports activities have been carried out in diverse forms. So far, Tibet has constructed 8 public arts center, 4 public libraries, 2 museums and 13 theaters while all counties across the region have set up comprehensive cultural centers.
The implementation of the project "radio and television programs accessible to every village" has benefited villages in poor areas. Radio broadcasting has covered 90.28% of the regional population, and television programs covered 91.41% .
To raise the overall quality of grassroots cultural workforces, Tibet has provided over 100 cultural trainings to almost 10,000 people.
Tibetan cultural heritage well protected
The report at the congress indicated that Tibet has 4,277 cultural relics and 743 cultural relic protection units, among which 224 are provincial level and 35 are state- level respectively. The People's Government of the Tibet Autonomous Region has set up the Cultural Relics Administration Committee to take charge of the preservation and administration of cultural relics in Tibet.
During the "Eleventh Five-Year Plan" period, the Central Government has pumped 507 million yuan into the renovation of 22 valuable cultural relics including the Potala Palace and the Jokang Temple. This cultural relic conservation project is the largest of its kind in Tibet in terms of both the amount of investment and number of maintained spots in the country's cultural relic maintenance history since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949. The basic principle for such conservation is to utilize traditional building techniques and materials to restore cultural relics while adhering to concept of "preserving the original look and retaining original style".
