Chinese Tibetologists have made unprecedented academic achievements since the country began its opening-up drive 20 years ago, according to Li Guoqing, deputy director of China's Center of Tibetology..

"Tibetology has entered a Golden Era," Li claims.

To date, China boasts over 50 Tibetology research institutes, with China's Center of Tibetology and the China Tibet Academy of Social Sciences as the biggest.

Among China's 1,000-plus Tibetologists, about half belong to the Tibetan ethnic group.

Over the past decade, China has trained more than 100 post-graduates and dozens of Ph.D. students in Tibetology. Most are young or middle-aged scholars who have mastered not only the Chinese and Tibetan languages, but also English or other foreign languages. They are gradually becoming the backbones in every sector of Chinese Tibetology.

Li pointed out that "under the guidance and support of people's governments at all levels, Tibetology has become more popular among Chinese scholars. And in other parts of the world, research of Tibetology among academic circles has also become more active in recent years."

From 1949 to 1995, China published more than 2,200 titles of books on Tibetology, over 700 of which were released between 1992 to 1995.

And from 1950 to 1979, China's newspapers and periodicals published 120 Tibetology-related articles annually. The yearly figure for the 1980-1990 period reached 940 and the annual number for the 1991-1998 topped 1,200.

Since China's opening-up in 1978, large numbers of ancient books in Chinese or Tibetan languages have been translated and published overseas, and a number of important books from overseas on the subject have been translated into Chinese and sold here.

In recent years, the China Tibet Academy of Social Sciences has sent young Tibetan scholars to study anthropology in such countries as the United States and Norway, and also invited American teachers to sponsor English language classes in Tibet. So far, more than 1,200 people in the autonomous regional capital of Lhasa have attended the courses.

China's Tibetology circles sponsored three international symposiums on Tibetology in 1986, 1991 and 1997. During the third symposium, more than 130 researchers from both at home and abroad attended and submitted over 100 papers.

"China is the hometown of Tibetology, and Chinese Tibetologistshave the responsibility to advance the research of Tibetology, so as to pave the way for Tibet's reform and progress as well as for the scientific decision-making of the central government concerning Tibet," Li said.