China makes great efforts in respecting, preserving traditional Tibetan culture: scholar
A prominent Chinese scholar on Wednesday said that the Chinese central government and the government of the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) have made great efforts in respecting, preserving, inheriting and promoting outstanding traditional Tibetan culture and have made remarkable achievements.
Zheng Dui, also Director-General of the China Tibetology Research Center, said that in the contemporary era, Tibetan culture is rejuvenated through "cultural integration of tradition and modernity".
Speaking during a side-event of the 37th UN human rights council session here in Geneva titled "protection and development of Tibetan culture", which was sponsored by China Society for Human Rights Studies, Zheng said that the preservation of Tibetan culture is a systematic project which should be based on a full, accurate and in-depth acquaintance and understanding.
"The real preservation is rooted in cognition and comprehension. It means to respect Tibetan culture based on comprehension, to carry out preservation measures based on respect, to achieve inheritance in the preservation process, and to inherit and promote at the same time," he explained.
"The ultimate purpose of inheriting and promoting is to achieve continuous development for Tibetan culture in the changing world so that it can make further contributions to the living and thinking of mankind and to the preservation of human civilization," he added.
According to him, the study and use of Tibetan language is under effective protection, and the government has set up a batch of educational training bases and various comprehensive research institutes, such as Tibet University, Tibetan Traditional Medicine College, China Tibetology Research Center and Tibet Academy of Social Sciences.
He told the audience that the Chinese central government and the government of TAR always see Tibetan Buddhist culture as an important component of traditional Chinese culture, give it effective preservation all the time and constantly strengthen efforts in collection, collation, and publication of religious classics.
For example, he said, it takes over 100 experts on Tibetan language and 20 years to finish the collation and publication of Tibetan Tripitaka Kangyur and Tengyur with huge financial support from the Chinese central government.
"Tibetan culture is an important part of Chinese culture. The inception and development of Tibetan culture enrich Human culture," he said.