A: The government has conducted systematic surveys, collection, collation, publication and research into Tibet's cultural heritage. The Tibet Ancient Tibetan Books Publishing House has collected over 200 precious ancient Tibetan books, some of which it has collated and published. The Tibet People's Publishing House has concentrated on the collation and publication of classic masterpieces and historic literature. For hundreds of years, these ancient books could only be found in hand-written and woodblock print copies. Now for the first time, they appear in print, beautifully designed and bound.

Since the 1980s, organizations engaged in ethnic cultural heritage restoration, collation and research have been established in various parts of Tibet. They have launched an unprecedented campaign aimed at the restoration, collection, collation, research, compilation and publication of works of ethnic and folk literature and art. The regional government has sent out investigation groups to all corners of Tibet, including cities, towns, villages and monasteries, on an overall investigation and collection mission. As a result, over 20 Tibetan folk literary works have been published. King Gesar, the world's longest epic created by the Tibetan people, has been orally handed down through generations. Retrieval, collation and research into this epic have been listed by the state as a key social science research subject, for which a special organization has been established. So far, more than 3,000 audio tapes have been recorded, and 62 volumes have been published in Tibetan, totaling three million copies. Some have been translated into English, Japanese and French. The compilation of the 600,000-character The Annals of Chinese Dramas: Tibetan Operas has also been completed, filling a huge gap in the theoretical study of the Tibetan theater, and work is in progress on the survey, collection, and collation of Tibetan dance, ballads, music, songs, tales and proverbs.

	This photo taken on Nov. 6, 2003 shows the main hall of the Sagya Lamasery in southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region. The Sagya Lamasery, built in 1073 and located 450 km west of Lhasa, has long enjoyed almost the same fame with the Dunhuang Grottoes for its large collection of Buddhist scriptures, valuable porcelains and vivid frescos dating back to nearly one thousand years ago. Since the beginning of 2002, the Chinese Government has invested 86.6 million yuan (about 10.5 million US dollars) to repair and maintain the famous religious relics.