Repair Of Potala Palace To Be LaunchedSouthwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region is making preparations for a new round of repair of the Potala Palace, sources from the regional bureau of cultural heritage said.Vjam Dbyangs, director of the regional bureau of cultural heritage, said that the repair work is expected to be started soon if the State Administration of Cultural Heritage (SACH) gives a green light. The director said that the central government invested more than 53 million yuan (6.38 million U.S. dollars) in a massive renovation of the Potala Palace between 1988-1994. Vjam Dbyangs said that heavy rains in 1988 caused a lot of damages to the complex of Potala Palace, some halls have become leaking and some platforms have collapsed. The situation has aroused the attention from both the regional department of cultural heritage and the SACH, the director added. Ten architectural experts from the SACH, the Cultural Heritage Research Institute of China, and other related academies, universities and bureaus launched a two-day thorough investigation of the over 1,000-year-old palace which was completed today. They began investigations of the Zhaxi Lhunbo Lamastery and Sagya Monastery today. |
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