LHASA, July 21 -- A center for restoring ancient Tibetan books was inaugurated in Lhasa, capital of southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region on Tuesday.

China has more than one million ancient Tibetan books, two-thirds of which are in Tibet. These books are scattered in temples, local libraries, research centers, museums as well as among the people.

Many of these ancient books have been damaged and are in dire need of restoration and protection.

Nyima Cering, head of the regional culture department, said Tibet has launched an ancient book protection campaign since 2008, creating a leading team and an expert committee to help with the work.

So far, the regional government has allocated a total of more than 5 million yuan (about 805,000 U.S. dollars) to support the survey and protection of ancient Tibetan books.

"Ancient Tibetan books are symbols of the industrious and intelligent Tibetan people through the centuries. They also play an important part of the multi-culture of the Chinese nation," said Painba Cering, vice head of the Tibet regional library.

In the past, people used to repair damaged books using traditional methods, such as sewing books with thread or pasting pages with starch, which can lead to more damage to these vulnerable books, Painba Cering said.

The newly founded center will improve the restoration and protection of ancient Tibetan books, he said.

A 10-day ancient book restoration training workshop also opened on Tuesday, with 42 trainees from different monasteries and cultural relics protection departments across the region.