Students of Tibetan Opera major are rehearsaling for a competition in the Tibet University. [Photo/China Tibet Online]

American girl Annie is learning Thangka in a class in the Tibet University. [Photo/China Tibet Online]

Tibet University, as the most important institution of higher education in Tibet, plays a key role in the inheritance and promotion of the traditional Tibetan culture and art.

Since the faculty of fine arts established in 1985, it has focused on the inheritance and development  of the ethnic culture and increasingly offered more ethnic characteristic teaching courses, inculding Thangka, composition of Tibetan songs, history of Tibetan music as well as Tibetan dances.

The faculty now boasts 7 teaching and research sections in various cultural aspects and two research instututions.

Wandering around the campus of Tibet Univeristy, groups of teens and twenties are seen learning and practising the techniques of the traditional cultural and art forms.

In a Thangka class, students were learning the Thangka painting attentively. When asked the reasons why they chose Thangka as a major, these young students almost gave a concordant answer - one is for the love of their ethnic art and the other is for better inheriting the traditional art.

Their concentration and careful paint bring new splendor and hope to the time-honored Tibetan art.

Among the students, a foreign girl named Annie from the North Carolina, U.S.. is quite attractive. Owing to her mother as a Tibetan, she was influenced and had eyes for Thangka since she was very young. Therefore, as exchange student learning in Tibet University this year, Annie cherishes the time learning Thangka and Tibetan culture.

Tibet Univeristy well promotes the traditional Tibetan culture and provides vast potential for its future development. Meanwhile, the traditional Tibetan culture has blended in the life of the young generations and become an important part of their life.