May 20,2006 marks the 20th birthday of CTRC.

On May 18, 20o6, CPPCC Chairman Jia Qinglin made an inspect visit to the Center to extend cordial greetings to Tibetan study workers of CTRC as well as the whole country on behalf of General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee Hu Jintao. Mean while Jia made a speech in which he fully affirmed the achievements made by the CTRC over the past 20 years and put forward new demands on Tibetan studies. He said facing the new situation scholars engaging in Tibetan studies should grasp the new opportunities to get a clear understanding of the new circumstances and have a new starting point while adhering to the correct orientation of scientific research, and actively serve for the economic and social development of Tibet as well as other Tibetan-inhabited areas, at the same time strive to cultivate a high-level specialist team for Tibetan studies.

On May 20, a grand celebration ceremony was held in Beijing to mark the 10th anniversary of the found- ing of the GTRG. Attending the meeting were Liu Yandong, Vice-Chairman of the CPPCC National Committee and Minister in charge of the CPC United Front Work Department, leaders from various departments under the Party's Central Committee and the State Council as well as from Bcijin6 municipality} the Tibet Autonomous Region and other provinces, and Tibetologists from Taiwan and abroad.

At the opening ceremony, Minister Liu Yandong delivered an important speech in which she spoke highly of the achievements made by the CTRC since its establishment, put forward the new tasks and placed great hopes on researchers of Tibetan studies. Zhu Xiaoming, the Party's Secretary of the CTRC and Lhagpa Phuntshogs, the Director-General of the CTRL also made speeches at the meeting.

During the past 2o years, under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party and the State, taking scientific research as its central task, the CTRC has achieved a serious successes in many fields of Tibetan studies, such as

•the study of Tibetan history, which aims at ex-pounding the laws and characteristics of the social-historic development of Tibet, clarifying the relations between Tibetans and other fraternal nationalities and the relations between Tibet and central governments, and taking the great effort go strengthen the national unity and help Tibet build a harmonious society;

•the study of Tibetan Buddhism, which aims at probing into its essence, doctrines, disciplines, sects and transmission system, at the same time making Tibetan Buddhism adapt itself to socialist society within the framework of state law;

•the socio-economic stud which aims at keeping abreast of current development and summing up the experiences and lessons of the past so as to profound ways of development in Tibet and other Tibetan-inhabited areas;

•the Tibetan culture study which aims at under-standing its wealth of cultural treasures, probing into its origin, evolution and characteristics, protecting its outstanding traditional culture and bringing forth the new through the old;

•the study of democratic political system and regional national autonomy which aims at improving the regional autonomy system in Tibet and strength-ening the democratic and legal system. Study shows clearly that only socialism can save Tibet from doom and embark Tibet on to the road to prosperity.

20 years have passed since the founding of the CTRC, it has now become an influential, stateleve and multifunctional research institution in Tibetan studies comprised of several distinct research institutes, a publishing house, a library with some academic information and data collection departments, network and other cultural undertakings.

Reviewing the past and looking forward to the future, the GTRG are making progress steadily. At present, the Center is working out zoo6-zoio Development Plan based on Nations 11th Five-Year-Plan, The guiding principles are to act in the spirit of the Party and State Council's decisions Concerning the work on Tibet and carry out the strategies combining opening up, guality-oriented works, more famous ex- perts and a grand alliance of all Tibetologists for prosperity and development of Tibetan studies.

During the celebrations, a ceremony of issuing First Jomolangma Award for best Tibetan studies works and Seminars on Tibetan studies have been held as well. All participants visited the 2o Year Fruit Exhibition of the Center.

China Tibetology Research Center.