The chairman of Tibet
Autonomous Region told a press conference in Hong Kong
yesterday that the foreign view of the region as a place where
religious freedom is ignored and culture and ecology ravaged is far
from the truth.
Qiangba
Puncog was speaking at Tibetan Culture Week, which opened there
last Friday, and said Tibet now has over 1,700 religious venues and
more than 460,000 registered monks and nuns, and that important
religious festivals and activities are regularly held.
Each year, the capital Lhasa alone receives nearly 1 million
Buddhist pilgrims, he said, "Tibetan people's religious freedom and
traditional custom are fully respected and protected here."
Puncog said Tibet now contains 410,000 square kilometers of
natural conservancy areas, one third of its total area, and is
still the best place in China in terms of water and air
quality.
He said the central and regional governments have always
attached great importance to environmental protection when
developing the region, especially so nowadays.
"Taking the Qinghai-Tibet Railway, still under construction, as
an example: a great amount of money has been put into preservation
of the environment as the railway goes ahead. In fact, the project
has become a model in solving the contradiction between development
and environmental protection," he said.
Responding to a suggestion that Tibet should be left as it is,
Puncog said Tibetan people also want the benefits of development
and cannot be left to live as in the past.
"Development is the key to all kinds of problems," he said. "In
developing Tibet, we stick to two criteria: what is the best for
the Tibetan people and what is the fastest way for its
development."
China Tibetan Culture Week is being held until July 21 to
celebrate the 40th anniversary of the establishment of Tibet
Autonomous Region. It features a large exhibition of cultural
relics, religious rituals conducted by Living Buddhas and
performances of songs and dances.
The week is jointly sponsored by the Information Office of the
State Council, the Liaison Office of the Central People's
Government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and the
people's government of Tibet Autonomous Region.
(Xinhua News Agency July 19, 2005)