The State Council has recently announced the National Intangible Cultural Heritage list. 13 items from Tibet have successfully made it onto that list. Tibet has a centuries old history of arts and culture and recently, they have been getting more protection.

Dancing in the yard is 76-year-old Nima, demonstrating this traditional dance to his students. Jiuhezhuo (久河卓) dance, as its called, has a history of 1,300 years in Shannan prefecture. Nima began learning it when he was 17 years old. He now has 80 students.

The dance, renowned in Tibet, was listed as an item of provincial intangible cultural heritage in 2008. In 2011, it was featured on the stage of the CCTV Spring Festival Gala.

Also listed as national treasure is the writing of Nichi School (尼赤派), the highest level of Tibetan calligraphy. Classes teaching the traditional writing are increasing.

Tibet is home to a variety of cultural resources. In the past decade, the government has put some 170 million yuan into preserving and protecting the heritage.

“We’ll make rules and regulations for protecting intangible cultural heritage and spare no efforts to pass on and revitalize the valuable cultural resources,” Ji Ji from Tibet Department of Culture said.

Currently, there are 89 national intangible cultural heritage items and 68 national masters listed from Tibet. Among them, Tibetan opera and King Gesar were listed as World heritage by UNESCO in 2009.