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Opinion / Op-Ed Contributors

Successful regional ethnic autonomy in Tibet

(China Daily) Updated: 2015-09-07 08:17

Tibetan Buddhist culture is respected and protected. The central government and the local government of Tibet Autonomous Region have always regarded Tibetan Buddhist culture as an important component of traditional Chinese culture, offering protection and reinforcing the collection, compilation, publication, and research of religious classics. The central government set a budget of more than 40 million yuan for the revision and publication of the Tibetan Buddhist canons Kangyur and Tengyur, a 20-year project entailing the efforts of more than 100 Tibetan experts. Since the 1990s, the Tibetan-language Chinese Tripitaka - Tengyur (collated edition), A Tibetan-Chinese General Catalogue of the Tibetan Tripitaka, A Commentary on Tshad-ma sde-bdun, Five Treatises of Maitreya, and Annotations on Pramanavarttika Karika - the Solemn Snowland have been successively compiled and published. More than 1,490 copies of Kangyur have been printed, and the ritual procedures, biographies, and treatises on Tibetan Buddhism have also been published to meet the study demands of monasteries, Buddhist monks and nuns, and lay believers. Treatises on Buddhism written and published by religious research institutes, eminent monks and scholars, such as Collation and Research of Pattra-leaf Scriptures, Collation of Sanskrit Pattra-leaf Scriptures Extant in Lhasa, Studies of the Origin and Development of Religions and Religious Sects in Tibet, Reincarnation System of Living Buddhas, History of Buddhism by Guta, Records of Tibetan Bonist Temples, Records of Tibetan Buddhist Monasteries in China, and The Art of Murals of Buddhist Monasteries in Tibet have been published.

Temples are maintained and protected. Since the 1980s, the state has allocated funds, gold, and silver to maintain, renovate and protect temples. More than 1.4 billion yuan has been spent on restoring Tibetan cultural relics and refurbishing key monasteries. A total of 6.7 million yuan, 111 kg of gold, 2,000 kg of silver, and a large amount of jewelry has been used to renovate stupas and prayer halls from the Fifth Panchen Erdeni to the Ninth Panchen Erdeni. The state budget to build these for the 10th Panchen Erdeni was 66.2 million yuan and 650 kg of gold. In 1994, the state allocated another 20 million yuan to renovate Ganden Monastery. Since 1995, the central budget has given active support to the maintenance and protection of monasteries listed as state key cultural relics units, such as the Potala Palace, Norbulingka and Sakya Monastery.

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