Experts from Tibet Autonomous Region in China are competing against time to digitize some of the region's intangible cultural customs and traditions as most folk masters are already in their older years.

According to Ngawang Dainzin, the chairperson of the Protection Center for Intangible Cultural Heritage in Tibet, officials in the autonomous region started gathering data in 2006 and the digital database now has a collection of over 100,000 stories, 1,500 videos and 40,000 pictures.

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The database has various multimedia content including 114 Tibetan operas, data on 89 intangible cultural heritage programs, instruction on the 68 state-level descendants, and over fifty percent of the programs and successors on the regional level.

"The masters are a 'living dictionary' of intangible cultural heritage," Ngawang said. He added this computerization process will help preserve the legacy of the Tibetan ethnic group.

In the past years, many folk masters, who have passed away, did not have the chance to transfer their special knowledge or were too sick to train successors. Traditional music, performing arts, rituals and medicines, and folk literature are just among the 10 different categories the current digitizing process is conserving for the succeeding generation.

Meanwhile, a museum featuring the Tibet Tubo Kingdom is set to open in May this year. The upcoming Tubo Museum will be located in the county of Qonggyai. According to Dawa, the head of the Tibet Cultural Tourism Ltd., the museum will showcase the various aspects of the Tubo period. It will cover an area of up to 12,000 square meters and the number of items to be featured will increase from 2,000 in the first phase to 10,000 in the second phase.

TagsCulture, tradition, Tibetan ethnic group, digital, Protection Center for Intangible Cultural Heritage