LHASA, April 25 (Xinhua) -- Southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region launched a rare ancient books cloud reading platform Saturday.

Fifty rare collections of Tibetan ancient books with 6,581 folios from the Tibet Library, covering biographies of Tibetan scholars and the history of Tibet and Buddhism, are available on the platform.

"We chose to launch the platform around the World Reading Day to promote public awareness and participation in preserving ancient books and inherit the precious resources," said Penpa Tsering, deputy head of the regional ancient book protection center.

On the same day, the Tibet Library also released online a pictorial book featuring 34 ancient Tibetan books included in the national catalog of rare ancient books.

For many years, Tibet has faced difficulties in conserving and utilizing its ancient books, with most scattered throughout more than 1,300 temples.

In 2009, Tibet started to comprehensively protect its ancient books. So far, it has surveyed and registered more than 18,000 old books and documents, and established a 5.94-TB database of ancient Tibetan documents and literature.