Historic Tibetan archives face ruin, Beijing told

Text of report by Xinhua news agency

Beijing, 4th January: Two Chinese legislators have called for immediate action to rescue and protect historic records preserved in the Tibet Archives.

"If we don't take any prompt action, some of these precious historical records will probably perish in the foreseeable future," warned Nie Dajiang and Xu Jing, both members of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC).

Nie and Xu made an inspection tour of the Tibet Autonomous Region September last year during which they were thrilled to see the vast amount of historic records stored in the Tibet Archives, some of which were seriously damaged and became indecipherable.

According to a joint speech they made at the NPC Standing Committee's 29th meeting last week, the Tibet Archives keeps more than three million historic documents and papers that span some seven centuries from the Yuan dynasty (1271-1368) to the Democratic Reform in 1959.

The archives are historically correct and are a good record of Tibet's life in almost all aspects including politics, economics, military, culture and religions during the imperial Yuan, Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties, and well into the Repubic of China (1912-1949) and the People's Republic of China.

"They are of profound political implications and of high historical value," said Nie, citing that the files include imperial edicts from the Yuan dynasty (1271-1368) and rigid official decrees of that time, which called for the protection of Tibetan Buddhist temples and Tibetan tribal chieftains' rights and interests.

Also among the archives are the imperial edicts and orders issued by the court of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) to Tibetan political and religious leaders, written in the three languages, namely, the Han (or Chinese), Tibetan and Mongolian languages.

These records testify to the fact that the central Chinese goverment began to exercise its administrative jurisdiction over Tibet as early as seven centuries ago and that Tibet has been an inalienable part of China since ancient times," Nie noted.

The two legislators further pointed out the archives are indispensable for the study of the Tibetan history, its regional defence and relations with other ethnic minorities.

"They offer comprehensive perspectives to the studies of Tibet's philosophy, culture, religion, art, language and cosmology as well," said Nie.

However, nearly one-third of these precious historic records are in a bad shape. About 400 lots of papers and documents have not yet been sorted, some are rotten and fragmented, and some others are simply melted together.

"There is no time to lose in trying every means to rescue these records," Nie noted.

They suggested that the central government and departments concerned recruit scholars and experts all over the country to join in the rescue team.

To this end, a special fund should be established to finance the project which definitely requires special equipment for restoration.

Meanwhile, the central government should hire experts on ancient Tibetan language who can not only lead the resue work but help train young professionals.

"We should guarantee preservation of the precious archives for the benefit of coming generations," Nie sid.

Source: Xinhua news agency, Beijing, in English 1302 gmt 4 Jan 98

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