Photo taken on May 14 shows the Tashilumpo Monastery, the traditional seat of successive Panchen Lamas in southwestern Tibet's Xiagze Prefecture. China's Central Government will spend another 570 million yuan (about 83.4 million U.S. dollars) renovating 22 cultural relics in Tibet. [Xinhua]

China's Central Government will spend another 570 million yuan (about 83.4 million U.S. dollars) during its 11th Five-Year Plan period (2006-2010) renovating 22 cultural relics in Tibet, said Qiangba Puncog, chairman of the Tibet Autonomous Regional Government.

Qiangba Puncog made the remarks on Sunday at the ceremony to mark the completion of the restoration of Tibet's three key cultural relics, i.e., the Potala Palace, Norbulingka Monastery and Sagya Monastery.

The 22 cultural relics include the Tashilumpo Monastery, the traditional seat of successive Panchen Lamas, the Jokhang Temple, the first Buddhist temple in Tibet, and the Drepung Monastery, the largest monastery of the Gelug Sect of Tibetan Buddhism.

Plus the funding for protecting the cultural heritage in Tibet, the Central Government's total spending in renovating the region's cultural relics will hit 1.3 billion yuan (about 190 million dollars) by 2010.

The financing for the new projects exceeds that for the three key cultural relics, hitting an all-time high in the Central Government allocation in a single payment.

According to the "White Paper on Tibetan Culture," from the 1980s to the 1990s, the Central Government spent more then 300 million yuan (about 43.9 million dollars) renovating about 1,400 monasteries in Tibet.

(Xinhua News Agency August 26, 2009)