Norde said the country is also trying to make Gesar a world intangible culture heritage so as to better protect the epic known as the Oriental Iliad after the Greek epic poem by Homer.

Lawmaker Zhang Guofu, a mushroom grower from the Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Garze of Sichuan Province, said even in the remotest villages, the signs of villagers' committees are written in the Tibetan language.

Zhang said some local students from the Han and Yi ethnic groups in his hometown have complained "unfairness" over preferences given to Tibetan students in the college-entrance exam.

Zhang's opinion was shared by lawmaker Nyangmonshan. The midwife from the Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Huangnan in Qinghai Province said bilingual Tibetan-Chinese teaching is adopted in all schools in Huangnan, and Tibetan medicine and drugs are becoming more popular in the country.

Stability concerns

Despite satisfaction with the development in Tibetan areas, the lawmakers said they are concerned about stability because of separatist activities.

"It is not a secret that the Dalai Lama clique attempt to sabotage stability in Garze," Zhang said.

In the 1990s, Zhang recalled, some monks and local residents were instigated by the Dalai clique to bomb bridges, government buildings and even crowded commercial plazas in Sichuan Province.

The farmer said he could not understand why some foreign journalists insist presenting a totally different picture of Tibetan areas from what local people see.