The chairman of Tibet Autonomous Region told a press conference in Hong Kong yesterday that the foreign view of the region as a place where religious freedom is ignored and culture and ecology ravaged is far from the truth.

Qiangba Puncog was speaking at Tibetan Culture Week, which opened there last Friday, and said Tibet now has over 1,700 religious venues and more than 460,000 registered monks and nuns, and that important religious festivals and activities are regularly held.

Each year, the capital Lhasa alone receives nearly 1 million Buddhist pilgrims, he said, "Tibetan people's religious freedom and traditional custom are fully respected and protected here."

Puncog said Tibet now contains 410,000 square kilometers of natural conservancy areas, one third of its total area, and is still the best place in China in terms of water and air quality.

He said the central and regional governments have always attached great importance to environmental protection when developing the region, especially so nowadays.

"Taking the Qinghai-Tibet Railway, still under construction, as an example: a great amount of money has been put into preservation of the environment as the railway goes ahead. In fact, the project has become a model in solving the contradiction between development and environmental protection," he said.

Responding to a suggestion that Tibet should be left as it is, Puncog said Tibetan people also want the benefits of development and cannot be left to live as in the past.

"Development is the key to all kinds of problems," he said. "In developing Tibet, we stick to two criteria: what is the best for the Tibetan people and what is the fastest way for its development."

China Tibetan Culture Week is being held until July 21 to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the establishment of Tibet Autonomous Region. It features a large exhibition of cultural relics, religious rituals conducted by Living Buddhas and performances of songs and dances.

The week is jointly sponsored by the Information Office of the State Council, the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and the people's government of Tibet Autonomous Region.

(Xinhua News Agency July 19, 2005)