Published by: World Tibet Network News Issue ID: 98/01/07

China Daily, December 30, 1997

(XINHUA is the official news agency of the People's Republic of China)

LHASA (Xinhua) -- China's open policy and economic reforms have promoted the development of publication services in the Tibet Autonomous Region.

The region currently has 60 newspapers and periodicals, half of them being Tibetan-language publications.

Tibet has a long history and is rich in culture. But before the peaceful liberation of Tibet in the early 1950s, there were few publications for ordinary Tibetans except some classical Buddhist books circulated in some major temples.

On April 22, 1956, the "Tibet Daily" was published in both Tibetan and Chinese languages in Lhasa, capital of the region. Now there are about 30 newspapers with nine Tibetan-language ones covering political, economic, scientific and technological, educational and cultural, and ethnic affairs.

Meanwhile, the Tibet People's Publishing House has published more than 2,000 kinds of books in the past 26 years and 70 per cent of the books were printed in the Tibetan language.

The publishing house also published some books to spread the knowledge of science and technology among Tibetans such as "Application of Fertilizers," "On Prevention of Infectious Disease of Cattle" and "Safety Measures for Electricity Applications."

Since 1991, the publishing house has held Tibetan book expositions in Nepal and India, as well as in Hong Kong and Macao.

In the past decade, Tibet has set up a video publishing company to publish audio and video tapes in the Tibetan language, including "Singer Cedain Zhoima's Collection," "Hometown -- Changdu," "The 17th Garmaba Living Buddha" and "Tibetan Customs MTV" as well as "Pilgrimage to the West."