Establishing the Preparatory Committee for the 16th International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences
    On December 24, 2003, the Preparatory Committee for the 16th International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences was established in Beijing. A meeting was held to elect the Preparatory Committee, and the Preparatory Committee held its first meeting.
    The 16th International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences will be held in Kunming, China, in 2008.
China Has Three More Centers for Training Doctorate Students in Tibetan Studies
    On February 18, 2004, the New Year’s Day of the Tibetan Year of the Wood Monkey, Professor Dpal Vbar Rdo Rje, President of the Central Ethnic University Tibetology School, stated at a gathering of Beijing experts of Tibetan studies to mark the New Year at the China Center for Tibetan Studies that with the approval of the government, China established three more centers for training doctorate students in Tibetan studies in 2003. These centers are the China Center for Tibetan Studies, the Central Ethnic University Institute of Tibetan Studies, and the Southwest Ethnic University Institute of Tibetan Studies. These new centers will greatly promote Tibetan studies in China.
Using Modern Means to Publish the Tibetan Edition of Tripitaka
    The China Tibetology Publishing House has now proudly published the first collated Tibetan edition of 50 volumes of Tripitaka’s Tanjur. The project is undertaken by the Chinese Center for Tibetan Studies as an important national research item for philosophy and social sciences during the Eighth Five-Year Plan period. It is also a priority in publishing as defined by the Press and Publication Administration for the Ninth Five-Year Plan. In each of the following years, 20 volumes will come out until all of the projected 120 volumes are published in 2006. The book is so far the most complete and authoritative edition of Tanjur in China. It is composed of a series of volumes of Tripitaka published with modern means for the first time in China. Luxuriously bound and beautifully printed, the book is a first-class publication at home and abroad.
    The Tibetan Tripitaka is an important part of the traditional culture of Tibetans, and it can be called their encyclopedia and has always been regarded as a holy thing in Tibetan Buddhist pagodas. It is composed of Kanjur and Tanjur. Kanjur consists of sutras, vinaya and Abidharma pitakas as well as the four classes of tantra and is divided into the seven categories. Tanjur consists mainly of the annotations and commentaries written about Kanjur by Indian Buddhists and Tibetan scholars and translators. It covers a wide range of areas such as philosophy, logic, astronomy, calendar, literature, art, languages, medicine, arts and crafts, and architecture. There are a dozen block-printed editions of Kanjur woodcuts, and there are four block-printed editions of Tanjur. That is, the Beijing, Derge, Nartang, and Dzoni editions produced in 1724, 1737, 1741, 1743 respectively. The newly published Tanjur is a complete, systematic collated edition of the four editions. The principle for collating the Tibetan edition of Tanjur is to take Derge edition as the text against which other texts such as Beijing, Nartang and Dzoni editions are checked, to collate sentence by sentence, and to list the differences of words and sentence order among various editions without any comment, with notes and lists of collation appended to each volume. Therefore, if you the collated edition of Tanjur, you actually have access to the other editions. The publication is, therefore, a combination of the four editions and is good both for research and for Buddhist service at pagodas.
Book reveals folk medicine
    In his latest book “Xueyu Yuanwang Shu (Wish Trees in the Snow Area),” veteran reporter Li Xiaolin recorded with reverence the present challenges and opportunities facing Tibetan medicine, and introduced in simple language the history of the ancient medicine.
    The book is the fruit of Li’s 18 trips to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau over the past five years to visit dozens of Tibetan hospitals and interview hundreds of Tibetan doctors.
    His book introduces the dangers threatening the natural environment of the plateau; the price of Tibetan medical herbs; the fate of Tibetan medicine hospitals; the lives of famous Tibetan doctors; and the achievements of entrepreneur Lei Jufang in developing the medicine.
    “The book is itself a meaningful document,”wrote Zhu Guobei, president of the Chinese Ethnic Medicine Society in the preface.
    In his trips Li went to sacred mountains, picked herbs along mountain paths and slept among the flowers in the grassland. “No matter how I get across the plateau I am always only ever on its edge. It has a great impact on everyone who enters it. It’s really a special land,” wrote Li.
    Born into a Miao family in Jianshi, Central China’s Hubei Province, Li has been a reporter for the Beijing-based Chinese Ethnic Groups magazine since 1988. He had already published four books on ethnic group communities in China.
Discussing the Development of China’s Western Region  and the Protection of the Ethnic Culture and the Rights and Interests of the Residents There
    On February 4, 2004, Research Center for Developing China’s Western Region,the Central Ethnic University,held a seminar on developing the western region, and protecting the ethnic culture and the rights and interests of the residents there. Chinese experts and European scholars attended the meeting. Against the background of the fifth anniversary of China’s launching the program for developing its west, the seminar was designed to reconsider how to protect the west’s local culture and the rights and interests of its residents and discuss in-depth the new models for economic development and the development of man and for economic development and ecological and cultural diversity and the new system of social security. The Chinese and foreign participants expressed their views on such topics as the position and role of culture and human nature in research on development, the rights and interests of ethnic minorities in the international law and economic development, development of the western region and the trend in the legal environment, the humanistic and esthetic outlooks in the development of the west, the legal basis of the international law, sustainable development and local participation, and the protection of the cultural heritage of ethnic minorities.
   Seminar on the Theoretical Innovation and Application  of Anthropology Held in Beijing
    Center for the Humanities and Social Sciences by Young Scholars,Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, held the Seminar on the Theoretical Innovation and Application of Anthropology in Beijing on November 8, 2003. More than 40 participants from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing University, the Renmin University of China, and the Central Ethnic University discussed in-depth the theoretical development and innovation of anthropology, how to improve the field research methodology of anthropology, wider application of anthropology, the future of the subdisciplines of anthropology, the interaction between them and related disciplines, the theoretical development of anthropology and its position in China, and how to successfully hold the 16th International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences in 2008.
    The participants held that as anthropology is about human beings and culture as a whole and is integrated with other sciences, it is necessary to use the knowledge and methodology of related disciplines in anthropological research. In addition, the outlook of integration and theory of relativity of anthropology are of great significance for understanding human culture, and its methodologies such as field research and in-depth visitations are quite relevant to other sciences including archeology and sociology. It is, therefore, necessary to promote the interaction between anthropology and other sciences.
    The participants also maintained that at present, anthropology in China is faced with both opportunities and challenges. It is now a major task for anthropology in China to uphold its basic concept of exploring the future development of mankind and culture and make contributions to social development. With regard to how to make use of the 16th International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences, which is to be held in China in 2008, to promote the theoretical development of anthropology in China and its position, the participants believed that theoretical innovation in anthropology must be carried out by respecting previous theoretical achievements; that anthropology can support the protection of cultural heritage, which makes it possible for it to become applied. This demands anthropologists’ attention and participation, and this is also an effective way to improve the position of anthropology in China.
   The Traditional Society and Culture of Ethnic Groups in Xinjiang Comes off the Press
    Recently, The Traditional Society and Culture of Ethnic Groups in Xinjiang was published by the Commercial Press. Written by He Xingliang, research fellow of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, on the basis of his long years of on-the-spot investigations and his systematic analysis of historical literature, the book focuses on an in-depth discussion of the historical organizations and culture of the ethnic groups of Uygur, Kazak, Kirgiz, Tajik and Altaic Ulanhai Mongol. It is also a special study of the names and origins of these ethnic groups as well as the structures and changes of their ancient tribes, the marks and slogans of their clans. The book analyzes the historical political and legal systems, expounds the types of families, the marriage system, the kinsfolk system and etiquettes, and discusses ancient sorcery, natural worship, animal and plant worship, Shamanism and other ancient religious beliefs. The author believes that the historical organizations in Xinjiang were unique, which included clearly defined clans, phratries, tribes and tribe unions of different sizes. Some of the ethnic groups such as Kazak and Kirgiz still kept more complete clans and tribes in the 1950s than other ethnic groups in China. Even now their clan and tribal organizations still play a very important role in their political and social life. This deserves further attention and analysis by scholars. In its introduction entitled “Civilization and Culture,” the book says that civilizations are not organisms and do not have conflicts with each other automatically. There is not an unbridgeable gap between civilizations. Respect, understanding, communication and tolerance are effective ways to ensure friendship between civilizations and ethnic groups.
   International Symposium on the Protection of the Art Heritage of Ethnic Minorities in China and on the Development of Contemporary Art
    The International Symposium on the Protection of the Art Heritage of Ethnic Minorities in China and on the Development of Contemporary Art was held in December 8, 2003. More than 200 Chinese and foreign scholars attended the meeting. The participants discussed in-depth cultural diversity and the protection of art heritage of ethnic minorities, the protection of art heritage of ethnic minorities and the social development in ethnic minority areas, the protection of art heritage of ethnic minorities and the development of contemporary art, the protection of the cultural ecology of ethnic minorities in the new century and the experience gained in the protection of the art heritages of the ethnic groups in all countries in the world. Experts pointed out that due to economic globalization, cultural standardization, the urbanization of traditional villages, and the rapid development of metropolises, traditional culture is being forgotten quickly, and the natural ecological environment and cultural diversity and especially the art heritages of the ethnic minorities in the world are being affected and destroyed. However, valuing and protecting these heritages and promoting the continuance and development of the cultural art of ethnic minorities are an important basis for keeping cultural diversity in the world. The participants held that the protection of nonmaterial cultural heritage is a systematic project. Rationally regulating and balancing different interests is the basic guarantee for preventing protection being lop-sided or going the wrong way. Different stands should be coordinated on the basis of seeking the sustainable development of mankind and the all-round development of man. When people emphasize the protection of a nonmaterial cultural item, this may objectively affect or limit to some extent the free choice of cultural diversity by specific groups or individuals. Therefore, the protection of nonmaterial culture should not be confined to a specific historical period. On the contrary, the will of free choice of those who carry on or share nonmaterial culture have during cultural protection, inheritance and development. The purpose of protecting the nonmaterial cultural heritage in the world is to reflect and preserve mankind’s cultural diversity in an all-dimensional, multi-tiered and non-simple way, and it involves all aspects of integrated culture. We should enhance our awareness of the importance but protect integrated culture, and pay attention to, study and protect cultural forms and creativity of mankind in specific time and space.
   Relationship Between Cultural Heritage and Anthropologists
    Have Chinese anthropologists finished their systematical and complete research on how to rescue the outstanding cultural heritage of mankind so as to better protect and preserve it? The answer given by Dr. Se Yin, research fellow of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Institute of Ethnicity and Anthropology, is in the negative. He believes that the protection and research of cultural heritage remains an important subject for ChinaÕs cultural and anthropologic researchers.
    Dr. Se holds that China should learn from foreign experience and measures for protecting cultural heritage. He points out that Chinese anthropologists can play an important role in protecting, authenticating, and rescuing cultural heritage. Chinese anthropologists should learn from their Japanese and Korean counterparts and take part in the protection of cultural heritage wherever possible.
    Dr. Se maintains that cultural heritage and cultural relics are different from each other in terms of intension and extension and that they cannot be treated simply as the same. He suggests the following measures be taken to protect cultural heritage. 1. Examination committees and committees of experts should be established as soon as possible to authenticate and evaluate cultural heritage. These committees should include an appropriate number of cultural anthropologists and folklorists. In addition, the List of the Folk Cultural Heritage should be compiled. 2. All activities designed to promote economic development should minimize their destruction of natural and cultural heritages. 3. Relevant museums and centers of folk information should be established to well preserve unearthed cultural relics and cultural heritage found among the people. 4. Laws and regulations should be enacted as soon as possible concerning the development, exploitation and protection of folk cultural heritage. 5. Film and TV anthropology and other modern means should be used to faithfully record and preserve ethnic and folk cultural heritage.