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It's Right Time to Bring About Prosperity and Development of Tibetan Language
As one enters Tibet, the first thing one contacts may be the Tibetan language. Everywhere one can see Tibetan books, newspapers and magazines as well as labels and advertisements written in both Tibetan and Chinese languages in streets and lanes.
At all times, one can hear broadcast programs in Tibetan and talks in Tibetan carried out among Tibetan compatriots and between Tibetan and Han people. Since the launch of Democratic Reform in Tibet in 1959, the study, use and development of the Tibetan language have received the close attention of the Party and government. Acting upon the Constitution and the Law of Regional National Autonomy, the government of the Tibet Autonomous Region successively announced in 1987 and 1988 implementation of the "Some Provisions of the Tibet Autonomous Region Concerning the Study, Use and Development of the Tibetan Language (trial implementation)" and the "Detailed Rules for the Implementation of 'Some Provisions of the Tibet Autonomous Region Concerning the Study, Use and Development of the Tibetan Language (trial implementation)' ", which bring the study, use and development of the Tibetan language onto the path of legalization, this fully guarantees the right of the Tibetan people to study and use their own ethnic spoken and written languages, thus bringing about a situation featuring the prosperity and development of the work of the Tibetan language.
The Tibet Autonomous Region is inhabited in compact communities by the Tibetan ethnic groups, with the Tibetan people accounting for over 95 percent of the region's total population. The Tibetan language is the common spoken and written language for the whole region, which is widely used in various aspects of Tibet's social life. In the resolutions, laws and regulations adopted by the Tibetan people's congress and in the official documents issued by Tibetan people's governments at various levels and government departments, and the public announcements they publish, both Tibetan and Han languages are used. In judicial and lawsuit activity, the Tibetan language is used to try cases and used in legal documents. Both Tibetan and Han languages are used for the names of organizations, schools, factories, streets, road signs, etc. The time for Tibetan language broadcast in the Tibet People's Broadcasting Station has reached 14.5 hours a day. Currently, there are 20 Tibetan programs with the annual dubbing capacity reaching 1,800 hours, Tibetan language broadcast has now covered over 66 percent of the whole region. Since it was set up in 1985, the Tibet Television Station has persisted in running Tibetan language programs well, on October 1, 1999, the satellite channel of the Tibet Television Station began broadcasting, with the time for Tibetan language broadcast reaching 12 hours a day, so that people in Tibet's border areas and those in Sichuan, Qinghai, Gansu and Yunnan can watch complete programs, reaching a very high rating. In 1998, Tibet Television Station spent 120 hours on television dubbing and produced 30 movie films. The undertaking of Tibet's books, newspapers and magazines has experienced constant development. In the 10 years since 1989 alone, the region has published 441 titles of Tibetan books, some books have even won awards at home and abroad. At present, there are 20 kinds of formally published and distributed Tibetan newspapers and magazines. Tibet Daily now has pages written directly in the Tibetan language every day. Now the Tibetan edition has a daily distribution volume of 16,000 copies, so that an average of some 150 people in the whole region share one copy. The publication of the Tibetan edition of the Handbook on Getting Rich has played a very good role in helping farmers and herdsmen in studying the Party's various principles and policies and acquiring the ability to become rich. Investment was made in setting up a computer Tibetan language type-setting system, thus putting an end to slug type-setting history. Tibetan writers and artists persist in writing and performing with the Tibetan language. Tibet's post and telecommunication, information and other service trades all provide Tibetan language services.
The educational departments of the Tibet Autonomous Region consistently regard the Tibetan language lessons as the main course for schools of various types and at all levels, A Bilingual teaching system of Tibetan and Han languages conforming with the region's reality has initially been set up. Lessons are taught in the Tibetan language in most primary schools; teaching lessons in the Tibetan language in junior middle schools is being promoted steadily, Tibetan language lessons are opened in Tibetan middle schools in the hinterland. There are altogether 102 Tibetan language lesson classes in the region's middle schools; beginning in 1989, Tibet University has continuously enrolled students into Tibetan language lesson teacher's training class for junior middle schools, which has so far trained 1,438 teachers for Tibetan language lessons in junior middle schools. Fairly big progress has been made in the compilation of teaching materials, 181 titles of textbooks, 122 kinds of reference teaching materials and 16 kinds of teaching programs on 16 branches of learning for students from primary to senior middle schools have been compiled.
The advancement of Tibet's modernization drive and the extensive contacts between various nationalities have expedited the rapid development of the Tibetan language translation undertaking. A translators' association has been established in Tibet, which persists in opening translation training classes, actively organizing and participating in translation academic activities, and applying modern information technology in translation work. According to incomplete statistics, there are about 1,000 people engaged in translation work in the whole region, who can complete translating over 30 million words a year. Today, many Tibetan compatriots not only can proficiently use the Tibetan language, but also pay great attention to the study and grasp of a variety of languages including Chinese and English.
Significant progress has been made in the normalization and standardization of the Tibetan language. In 1993, Tibet started the work of standardizing information technology in the Tibetan language, it set about to draft and draw up plans for Tibetan language encoded international standard and domestic standard. The Tibetan language coded international standard plan had been adopted in 1997 by the international standard organization, as a result, the Tibetan language has become the first written language among China's ethnic minority languages, that is up to the international standard. At the same time, the State has formally published two domestic standards. The computer Tibetan language Windows platform software development work is now in progress. In 1995, Tibet set about to engage in the study and formulation of the general principles and methods for the work of standardizing Tibetan terms, a fairly difficult task. The task of writing the first draft has been completed. Effort has been steadily intensified for the examination, approval and unification of the new terms. Now more than 3,000 Tibetan terms concerning the market economy and textbooks on patriotic education among primary and middle school students have been examined, approved and unified. Recently, a joint conference was held by the Tibet Autonomous Regional Party Committee and government to listen specifically to the report about the Tibetan language work. The departments concerned of the Tibet Autonomous Region are making preparation for the convening of the second Tibetan language working conference.
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