Government and Policy

Rural Tibetans receive 100m yuan for cultural relics preservation

(China Tibet Online)
Updated: 2011-02-25 16:16

Local artisans and tens of thousands of local farmers and herders have been employed in a series of preservation projects for Tibetan cultural relics, with a total fund of 100 million yuan during the 11th Five-Year Plan period (2006-2010), said the Cultural Heritage Bureau of Tibet autonomous region.

"Of all the relics renovation fund, about 10.59 million yuan was paid to workers involved in the maintenance projects, mostly local farmers and herders, while 57.92 million yuan more was used to purchase raw materials locally," said Denzin Namgyai, deputy director of the regional Cultural Heritage Bureau.

Another 22 projects for cultural relics maintenance were successively started in 2008, following the "three major cultural relics renovation projects" (the Potala Palace, Norbu Lingka and Sagya Monastery) started in 2002.

In 2010 alone, 20.96 million yuan was spent on personnel payment, and 20.22 million yuan for local raw materials.

Official statistics indicated more than 100,000 rural people had participated in the renovation of the three major cultural relics in Tibet, which brought them about 20 million yuan in extra income.

To keep the original style of the architectures, the maintenance projects have mainly employed local resources, including local rural labor, traditional craftsmanship and maintenance materials such as Aga clay (a kind of soil formed in dry grassland in the temperate zoneused for building prayer wheel corridors, passage and the top floor in Tibetan-style architecture).