Tibet Autonomous Region digitalizes relics archive

The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, commonly known as the “Roof of the World”, boasts many World Heritage Sites, including the Potala Palace, Norbulingka Palace and the Jokhang Temple Monastery. For decades, an archiving project for the relics there has been ongoing. Starting this year, the researchers have a new mission: to turn old paperwork into digital files.

According to the local heritage bureau, the current work focuses on filing movable art and historical pieces, including paintings, calligraphies, Buddhist scriptures and other journals. All items, many of which were not previously archived, will be registered under a new internet-based filing system. China has conducted two surveys of cultural relic sites in the Tibet Autonomous Region in 1959 and 1984, and the current archiving project was launched in 1999. In the past 15 years, total investment in the project from the central government reached three billion Yuan.