Abstract: Culture is the living pattern shaped by the public in long time that goes in line with their living conditions. Cultural tradition is the living pattern nurtured in the history of a nationality after numerous years. Since a long time ago, the central committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the party committee and government of the Tibet Autonomous Region have paid extraordinary attention to the protection and development of traditional Tibetan culture. In the new era, works such as the "Hundred New Thangkas Project," intangible cultural heritage, and the ideas of protecting natural environment, harmonious co-existence of human and nature, and sustainable development have integrated with traditional culture to become parts of human civilization and shine in contemporary society.

CPC Secretary General Xi Jinping once said, "Rich, outstanding traditional Chinese culture is the root of China in the global cultural stage…we should inherit and promote it in line with the conditions of the new era." The remarks have not only pointed out the directions of inheriting and promoting outstanding traditional Chinese culture in the new period, but also laid foundations for it meeting contemporary requirements and eventually shining in contemporary society.

Tibet boasts rich traditional culture, making it one of the pearls of the Chinese cultural treasure house. The central committee of the CPC has long emphasized the protection and development of traditional Tibetan culture. It has proposed making Tibet a key site of protecting unique Chinese culture, continuously increased investments in policy level, projects, capital and talents, and pointed out the general directions of protecting and developing Tibetan culture. Meanwhile, bearing in mind the economic development and social security of Tibet, the party committee and government of Tibet Autonomous Region have also put more emphasis on cultural development. It has issued a slew of policies including "Decisions on Promoting the Development of Prosperity of Culture" and "Guidelines on the Development of Tibetan Socialist Art." It has also decided to transform the region from boasting plentiful cultural resources to boasting outstanding culture, and has carried out key cultural heritage protection projects such as the protection and restoration of key cultural relics, protection of intangible cultural heritage, ancient books and palm leaf manuscripts. The region has also issued regulations related to cultural relics and intangible cultural heritage and built a four tier (state-autonomous region-city-county) cultural heritage protection system, in order to thoroughly inherit and protect outstanding traditional Tibetan culture. In contemporary society, Tibetan culture continues to have new vitality. The Tibetan language version of the book Three-Set Collection of Tibetan Folk Culture was recently published. The book, containing almost four million words, is a peak of Tibetan culture and the root of the core value of Tibet. The book project took eleven years and over 1700 people to finish, demonstrating the attention and strong support of the party committee and government of the Tibet Autonomous Region, as well as the effort of the cultural sector of the region in integrating traditional and modern culture.

We have the following suggestions on how to further integrate traditional culture and modern society in the new time period.

Promoting cultural development

Culture, in any period, is comprised of three elements: traditional culture, contemporary culture and culture that foresees future society. It is the inherent needs of culture to integrate its outstanding traditional elements with modern society. The rich cultural resources in Tibet have provided profound materials for cultural creation. All the remarkable cultural works created in recent years has been inspired by traditional Tibetan culture. For example, the "Hundred New Thangkas Project" has made use of folk fine arts and injected modern artistic ideas into it, enabling audience to enjoy it despite that the Thangka culture is dated back to ancient times. In addition, many dancing performances have also benefitted from traditional or folk culture, for instance, intangible cultural heritage "Bange Xieqin" (song of Bange county) has learned from traditional culture and received positive response from audience after being broadcasting on China Central Television. All these have showcased the success of integrating traditional culture with modern society. Moreover, there are still plentiful cultural resources to be made use of, including the Epic of King Gesar. These works are widely recognized and have intriguing stories, making it popular for tens of hundreds of years. With reinterpretation and representation in modern technique and fashion, these works are bound to win more audience and brought economic value to the regional cultural sector.

Promoting morality and ethics

With its profound national spirit, morality, and unique Chinese characteristics, traditional culture is key inspiration for strengthening morality and ethics in the new period.

Traditional culture has much to offer even in modern times. Ren, or benevolence, which is the core of traditional culture, advocates love and kindness. To love someone means to be kind to him/her. In traditional Chinese culture, aphorisms such as "Do not do to others what you would not have them do to you" and "Do not give up good things though they may be minor matters. Do not do evil things though they may be insignificant" speak volumes about the importance of morality. Likewise in traditional Tibetan culture, various collections of aphorisms also reveal the rationale and importance behind a number of things, providing cultural value to strengthening morality and ethics.

Family tradition and family education are one of the most representative parts of Chinese culture. Tibetan families place great emphasis on rituals, for instance, honorific expressions and respecting elders are basic principles, and there are specific norms as to how to respect parents and elders and how to obey social practice. Carrying forward these outstanding traditional culture is in fact tapping into and reconstructing these historical wisdom; moreover, it will help us more effectively strengthen socialist morality and ethics and let traditional culture stand more firmly in modern times.

Promoting harmonious co-existence of human and nature

The traditional Chinese idea of "heaven and human in unity" is in fact advocating people‘s awe and respect of nature and reining in excessive consumption and exploitation. Traditional Tibetan culture also has such ideas of protecting natural environment, harmonious co-existence of human and nature and sustainable development. These have shaped people‘s practice of protecting water, the grasslands, and natural resources, and educating people about altruism, benefitting the later generations and the spirit of conserving. The use and development of the positive elements in traditional culture are bound to contribute to environmental protection of the Tibetan Autonomous Region and build it into an excellent example of harmonious co-existence of human and nature.

Traditional culture is nurtured from people‘s practice in tens of hundreds of years and is applicable to real life. No matter how civilization evolves, positive elements in traditional culture can be integrated into modern civilization and become part of human civilization. These will go beyond specific time periods and keep shining in modern society.

(Phuntsok Tashi, Vice Chairman of Tibet Federation of Literary and Art Circles, President of Tibetan Ballad Singers Association)