Traditional Tibetan culture is under good protection while the snow land of Tibet, dubbed the "roof of the world," witnesses rapid economic and social development, said a Tibetologist in Rome Monday afternoon.

In a report at the Institute of oriental studies of Rome University, Cewang Gyurme, president of the Academy of Social Sciences of the Tibet Autonomous Region, said that Tibet saw "unbelievable" changes in the communication, transportation, public health and education sectors in the past decades since the theocracy system in the region was abolished in the middle of last century.

The report was part of the ongoing "2005 China Tibetan Culture Week" in Italy, which started on September 9 in Milan. The event was sponsored by the China International Culture Association, the Foreign Culture Exchange Association of the Tibet Autonomous Region and Foundation Italy-China.

Cewang Gyurme said that a trip to Rome would be a mission impossible for a Tibetan half a century ago, but the development of the region now makes it a much easier thing.

The Tibetologist said that Tibetans, who accounts for 95 percent of the population in the region, are certainly beneficiaries of the economic and social development.

The Tibetan language, custom, religious tradition and the environment in the region are well protected thanks to the legislative power the region enjoys, Cewang Gyurme said.

The researcher said that the autonomous mechanism established 40 years ago in the region provides a sound guarantee to the power of the regional legislature. The regional People's Congress, the local legislature, has made more than 200 regional laws and regulations in the past four decades.

Lama Lhabu from the Sera Monastery in Lhasa, regional capital of Tibet, briefed the audience on the religious tradition in Tibet.

He said that in Tibetan temples, religious tradition is well preserved, and the political rights of lamas and nuns as common citizens are fully respected since the autonomous mechanism was established.

The lama himself is a regional legislator, or a deputy to the regional People's Congress.

The lama said that only when one sees for himself the religious environment in Tibet, will he be able to feel how the Buddhism tradition is preserved in the snow land.

Tibetologists and lamas also gave a report in Milan on September 9.

As part of the culture week, a traditional Tibetan singing and dancing show was staged in Milan, Bergamo and Rome in the past two weeks, and an exhibition of Tibetan photographs was opened in Rome Friday, which is scheduled to last to Friday.

(Xinhua News Agency September 20, 2005)