Tibet Autonomous Region on Friday launched its first training course for inheritors of national intangible cultural heritage in the region's latest effort to protect its unique customs.

Thirty-seven successors from 22 national-level intangible cultural heritage projects attended the five-day program, according to Tibet's Department of Culture.

"It is absolutely meaningful to open such a training course. It offers inheritors of different intangible cultural heritage projects a platform to communicate and learn from each other," said Nyima Tsering, one of the trainees as well as the director of Tibet's Department of Culture.

To protect and better inherit intangible cultural heritages, Tibet established a group to lead intangible cultural heritage protection efforts, and the region has invested over 60 million yuan (US$9.4 million) into cultural heritage protection over the past six years.

Many cultural heritage inheritors face problems like aging, and the projects' pool of successors is dwindling. Tibet's cultural authorities are hoping to use the training program as a tool for cultivating more young successors.

"After the training program, we hope the inheritors can teach more people their techniques and, therefore, get more involved in intangible cultural heritage protection," Nyima Tsering said.

Tibet has 76 national-level intangible cultural heritages with 53 national-level model successors.