(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-04-16 07:24

Founded in Beijing on May 20, 1986, the China Tibetology Research Center is the country's top academic institution for Tibetan studies.

It employs more than 130 staff from six ethnic groups - Tibetan, Han, Mongolian, Manchurian, Hui and Tujia. Among the 50 senior researchers are Lhakpa Phuntsogs, Gelek, Tenzin, Chen Qingying, Hu Tan, Dorje Tsedan and Deng Ruilin.

The center comprises five institutes covering social and economic studies, history studies, religious studies, contemporary Tibetan studies and Tibetan medicine studies.

It also runs the China Tibetology Research Press, the Kanjur and Tanjur Collation Bureau, the Beijing Tibetan Medical Center and the China Tibetology journal.

The Kanjur and Tanjur Collation Bureau is working on a project to collate, edit and publish the Buddhist Canon - known as the Kanjur and Tanjur in the local language - in Tibetan.

The central government has provided more than 40 million yuan ($5.7 million) to fund the project.

The end product will be a hardcover publication with 242 volumes, more than 130 of which have already been published, the research center's chief director Lhakpa Phuntsogs said.

In its 22-year history, the center has undertaken many keystone research projects in Tibetan studies.

Foremost are social science projects, including studies on the relationship between the Tibetan government and the central government; feudalism and serfdom in Tibetan history; and the reorganization and categorization of the Palm-leaf Sanskrit manuscripts preserved in Lhasa.

China Daily

(China Daily 04/16/2008 page6)