The Tibetan edition of a three-volume Tibetan folklore composed of folk stories, folk songs and proverbs will be issued following the publication of the Chinese edition last October.

Gathering folk stories, folk songs and proverbs scattered in west China's Tibetan Autonomous Region, the set of books were described as "the culmination of Tibetan folklore" by Han Shuli, the deputy director of Tibet federation of literary and art.

"This folklore is a living fossil of Tibetan folk culture, so this set of books is of great literary and research value."

According to Han, since 1987 over 5,000 people have participated in the creation of the book, and the whole process has lasted for nearly 15 years.

Cedain Doje, director of the local federation of Tibetan folk artists, said although the tradition of collecting and recording folklore existed in Tibetan history, only after the 20th century, especially in the 1950s and 1960s, was folklore systematically recorded, published and translated into Chinese and other languages.

(Xinhua News Agency December 20, 2003)