What is Mercury's rotating speed this year and how it will affect the climate of the earth with its given position in the zodiac

These are the questions facing Ceyang, a 21-year-old Tibetan woman, and her 39 Tibetan classmates at the training school of traditional Tibetan astronomy.

According to traditional Tibetan astronomy, a unit of time is based on breathing of an adult, so one day is a cycle of 60 hours, instead of the universally recognized 24 hours.

And both the universe and the human body are composed of five elements -- water, wood, gold, fire and earth -- and changes of these elements exert varying influences on human health.

Pu Qung, head of the teaching office with the three-year training school of traditional Tibetan astronomy affiliated to the Tibetan Medicine College of Tibet, said traditional Tibetan astronomy is a branch of Tibetan medical science.

"I believe Tibetan medicine emphasizes clinical treatment, while traditional Tibetan astronomy lays the stress on preventive medicine, and a harmony between nature and mankind," he said.

There are colleges of higher learning that are dedicated to mass training of Tibetan medicine professionals, but for traditional Tibetan astronomy, the way of education was restricted to apprenticeship which is not conducive to keeping Tibetan culture alive, he continued.

The Tibetan Medicine College of Tibet is the only modern academy of higher learning for Tibetan medicine, and only students in their fourth year at the college began taking courses in traditional Tibetan astronomy.

Therefore in the summer of last year, the college inaugurated the training school which has been authorized as the only legal establishment to offer academic diplomas in traditional Tibetan astronomy.

Norbu Toinzhub, who is in charge of the training school, takes pride in the fact that, aided by a wooden sand table and a short piece of wire, traditional Tibetan astronomers can calculate the timing for cosmic phenomena such as solar or lunar eclipses in roughly same period of time as scientists with modern device.

A prediction given according to this year's Tibetan calendar, compiled by Tibetan Medicine College of Tibet, says that an eclipse of the moon will take place at 2:05 AM (Beijing time) on Sept. 8 and will end at 3:37 AM on the same day.

The forecast for the end of the eclipse is just one minute out compared with the calculation done with the help of telescopes or computers, according to Wang Sichao, a researcher with the well-known Nanjing-based Purple Mountain Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).

Traditional Tibetan astronomers whose number is declining still hold an important position in Tibetan society. Many Tibetan farmers and herds folk often turn to them for advice over affairs such as marriages, funerals, planting, herding, and ways for curing ailments.

"It is by no means easy to become a traditional Tibetan astronomer," said Dojo Cering, a student from Xigaze of Tibet with the training school, "We have to memorize tomes of books."

Pu Qung doubts that the three-year academic education can turn all students with the training school into traditional Tibetan astronomers.

"Perhaps a dozen of them will be qualified as traditional Tibetan astronomers on graduation, the remainder will have to rely on themselves for further study," said Pu Qung.

Nyima Cering, President of the Tibetan Medicine College of Tibet, pledged that they would continue to operate the training school no matter how hard the studies in traditional Tibetan astronomy are.

"The principal task of these students is to rescue and inherit the achievements of our forefathers in traditional Tibetan astronomy," said the college president.

(Xinhua News Agency April 6, 2006)