| VII. Academic Exchanges
To promote the development of China's Tibetan study, China's related
institutions and their scholars have continued to conduct academic exchanges
of all forms. Academic conferences on Tibetan study are held annually,
as are many lectures on special topics, symposiums and classes for advanced
studies. Some institutions will also send visiting scholars to related
schools in other cities for joint study on important research projects.
Since 1980 , exchanges between China and foreign Tibetan study circles
have also become more active. In almost every international academic
conference on Tibetan study held in a foreign country, Chinese scholars
will be seen; also, Chinese Tibetan study scholars are often invited
abroad to give lectures and conduct cooperative research. Meanwhile,
more and more foreign scholars are visiting China to take part in academic
activities of all kinds. After its establishment, the Center for Tibetan
Study of China itself received scholars from foreign countries and regions
of Hong Kong and Macao numbering several hundred people. There is also
a large number of foreign students who come to China to study Tibetology.
In recent years, China has frequently organized international academic
conferences on Tibetan study in Beijing and Lhasa. Scholars from Britain,
France, Japan, India, Mongolia, Czechoslovak the former Soviet Union,
as well as regions of Taiwan and Hong Kong, have been invited to these
conferences. Meantime, the works of some foreign scholars have also
been translated into Chinese and published. Some of China's research
institutions have also signed agreements of cooperation with foreign
research organizations, All these activities have enhanced understanding
and friendship between China and Foreign Tibetan study circles. They
play a very positive role in promoting the development of international
Tibet study. Also, because of China's opening up policy, the academic
exchanges between China and foreign Tibetan study circles are expected
to become even broader and smoother in the future.
As I end this article, l am happy to report that under the joint efforts
of concerned units, China will soon publish the Catalogue of Chinese
Publications on Tibetan Study. This large reference work will be published
in Tibetan, Chinese and English. It will provide fruits of China's complete
and systematic information reflecting the Tibetan study circle in the
years after the founding of new China. As a result of this book, readers
will be deeply impressed by new China' s efforts and successes in protecting
the historical and cultural heritage of the Tibetan nationality, as
well as in developing Tibet's brilliant traditional culture, and in
promoting development of Tibetan study. For myself, 1 hope it will also
remedy possible omissions and errors in this article.
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