The Tibet Autonomous Regional government is to launch a new field survey of cultural relics this month.

"Relic protection work in Tibet began late and developed slowly, despite Tibet's wealth and variety of unique relics," said Yu Dawa, director of the regional Bureau for the Preservation of Cultural and Historical Relics.

Two teams will travel to seven cities and regions to record newly discovered and unmovable relics.

The survey is the second phase of the third round of the national survey of cultural and historical relics. The first phase of repair work started in July last year.

Yu said 211 relics sites were registered and 179 sites were newly discovered in the trial survey in Linzhou town of Lhasa, capital of Tibet.

The third national survey would last five years, said Nyi'ma Cering, director of regional Bureau of Culture.

Tibet Autonomous Region has 2,335 cultural relic sites, of which 35 sites are national and 112 are regional relic protection sites.

(Xinhua News Agency March 1, 2008)