IV. Further Improvement in the Protection of Cultural Rights

Xizang attaches great importance to protecting, passing down and developing the fine traditional cultures of all ethnic groups, improving public cultural services, generalizing the use of standard spoken and written Chinese language, and guaranteeing the right to study and use the Tibetan language. These measures have raised cultural prosperity and development in the region to new heights and ensured that the cultural rights of all the ethnic groups in Xizang are protected.

- Preserving and protecting fine traditional cultures of all ethnic groups

The protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) in Xizang has steadily improved. Between 2012 and 2024, RMB473 million from the central government and the government of the Xizang Autonomous Region was earmarked for the protection of ICH items on the national representative list in the region, the documentation and recording of the knowledge and skills of the bearers of ICH items on the national list, the training of new ICH practitioners, and the construction of new ICH protection and utilization facilities. Xizang now boasts 2,760 items on the representative lists of all types and levels, with 1,668 bearers. Gesar, Tibetan Opera, and the Lum medicinal bathing of Sowa Rigpa of Xizang have been inscribed on the UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Five state-level and 12 regional-level demonstration bases that protect ICH items by transforming them into cultural products have been approved. Eight counties, townships, and villages with abundant ICH resources, 19 ICH scenic areas and spots, 159 bases for ICH practitioner training, and 153 part-time Tibetan Opera troupes have been named. Xizang has completed a rescue effort to record the knowledge and skills of 66 old-age bearers of the ICH items on the national representative list and of eight bearers of the ICH items on the regional representative list, and set up 224 ICH workshops. ICH items of all types have been effectively preserved, protected and developed.

Cultural relics and historic sites have been placed under proper protection. By December 2024, a total of 4,468 cultural relics sites of all types had been examined and registered. There are 2,373 cultural relics units under the protection of governments at different levels (70 of which are key units under state protection). The Potala Palace, Norbulingka, and Jokhang Temple, together as one item, are inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. The region boasts 155 sites of revolutionary significance, 43 museums, exhibition halls, and memorial halls, and 155 places on the list of immovable revolutionary cultural heritage. Xizang has completed the survey of resources in 277 grotto temples, and 15 stele and stone inscriptions have been included in the first batch of the list of famous ancient inscriptions by the National Cultural Heritage Administration. Between 2016 and 2024, over RMB2.84 billion was earmarked for 377 projects on the protection and maintenance of cultural relics. Major programs such as the Archeological Finds in China program and the archeological program on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau have been promoted. From 2016 to 2024, 102 archeological excavation projects have been carried out, including 70 proactive ones and 32 rescue operations. The region has held 21 cultural relic exhibitions and 10 museum online exhibitions.

Ancient books and documents have been placed under sound protection in Xizang. At the end of 2018, a 10-year project with a budget of RMB300 million was launched to conserve and explore the use of ancient documents, including the Pattra-leaf Scriptures in the Potala Palace. The results of the first and second phases of this project have been reviewed and accepted. The Ancient Book Protection Center of Xizang has created innovative methods of protecting ancient books and documents. By December 2024, more than 67,000 folios of rare ancient texts had been uploaded to global cloud-sharing platforms, more than 18,000 rare ancient texts from 1,180 units had been registered and filed, 305 ancient texts had been included in the Catalog of National Rare Books of China, and some 13,990 broken folios of ancient texts had been repaired. In 2013, the state launched a priority cultural project called the Complete Collection of Chinese Classics: Tibetan Volume. This project aims to publish important Tibetan classics for the period from the Tubo Kingdom (618-842) through to the peaceful liberation of Xizang in 1951. Currently, 201 volumes have been published across 12 titles, containing around 128 million characters in total. Additionally, in November 2023, a total of 206 volumes of Tibetan Medical Canon were published, recording 3,022 titles of ancient Tibetan medicinal classics.

- Improving public cultural services

Xizang has seen improved equal access to public cultural services. Since 2012, the central government has invested a total of RMB4.89 billion in developing public cultural services across the region. By the end of 2024, Xizang was home to 43 museums, exhibition halls, and memorial halls, 82 libraries, 82 people's art halls and cultural centers, 697 all-purpose cultural stations in towns and townships, and over 1,600 cultural squares. Mobile stage trucks and mobile libraries are utilized across 74 counties and equivalent administrative units. A five-tiered network of public cultural service facilities has taken shape throughout the region. Moreover, 14 hometowns of Chinese folk art have been set up, and 89 regional-level hometowns of folk art have been named. In December 2023, the Xizang Performing Arts Center was completed and opened.

There is much better access to public cultural services. Opportunities to participate in cultural services at the grassroots level have increased, with Xizang now home to 76 art troupes at the county level, 153 part-time Tibetan Opera troupes, 395 performing teams at the township level, and 5,492 at the administrative village and urban community level, representing more than 100,000 professional and amateur performers who provide live performances for farmers and herders in their neighborhood. Digitized movie projection is now widely available in rural areas, with 478 digital movie projection facilities across the region holding more than 63,000 movie screenings every year. In 2024, Xizang launched over 1,000 high-quality cultural works, including the dance drama Rainbow over the Snow Mountains, and the song and dance performance Sons and Daughters of Eastern Xizang. The region also held the Galsang Flower Performance Season and presented 88 performances of drama, concert, song and dance gala, and Tibetan Opera, benefiting over one million online and offline viewers. Grassroots cultural facilities have been widely upgraded. A total of 6,312 centers or stations for promoting cultural and ethical progress in the new era have been set up in villages, townships and counties. Radio and TV broadcasting coverage reach 99.54 percent and 99.67 percent respectively. The network of grassroots cultural services has also improved, ensuring that all ethnic groups have access to public cultural services.

Informatization of public cultural services has been strengthened. Xizang has developed smart libraries and a digital platform of public cultural services, piloted a program of dividing county-level libraries or cultural centers into headquarters and branches, and established digital exhibition halls for cultural relics from the Tang-Tubo ancient road and the Qamdo section of the ancient tea-horse road. With new technologies and through new media, regular cultural services are now accessible to all the ethnic groups across the region, including online live-streaming of artistic performances, online study, events, and training. The public cultural institutions of all levels in Xizang have annually carried out over 100,000 cultural activities, benefiting nearly 15 million participants. These efforts have been effective in promoting the advanced socialist culture at the grassroots level and delivering cultural services to the people in most remote areas.

- Guaranteeing the right to study and use the Tibetan language

The right to study and use the Tibetan language in public administration is guaranteed. All resolutions and regulations adopted by the People's Congress of the Xizang Autonomous Region and all general-purpose official documents and public notices released by people's governments at all levels in Xizang and their subordinate departments are published in both standard Chinese and Tibetan.

The Tibetan language is widely used in publishing, media, and daily life. By the end of 2024, Xizang had 17 periodicals and 11 newspapers in the Tibetan language and had published 46.85 million copies of 8,794 Tibetan-language books. In addition to traditional media - such as newspapers, magazines, radio programs, films, television programs, and the internet - new media have also been developed in the Tibetan language, including surging official accounts on social media. Their popularity has helped to expand the use of the Tibetan language. Every year, more than 15,000 hours of radio programs, more than 80 movies, and 7,300 hours of TV programs are translated or dubbed from and into minority languages. Both standard Chinese and Tibetan can be found in public facilities, signage and advertisements. The Tibetan language is widely used in fields such as health, postal services, communications, transport, finance, and science and technology.

The right to study and develop the Tibetan language is also guaranteed in education and in the standardization of important terms. Courses on both standard Chinese and Tibetan are taught in primary and secondary schools in Xizang. At the end of 2015, the national standard Information Technology - Vocabulary in Tibetan was officially released, becoming China's first national standard vocabulary for information technology in an ethnic-minority language. The National Committee for the Standardization of Tibetan Terminology issued nearly 1,500 newly approved Tibetan terms in 2018, and 2,200 in 2022. In 2023 an online platform to deal with queries concerning the two languages was launched, hosting a database of 300,000 standard terms.