A tibetan cultural exhibition will open at Shanghai East Asia Exhibition Hall on December 13.

The exhibition includes more than 300 items collected from Tibetan families and temples and authentic performances from 55 Tibetan artists and monks.

Organizers also invited six Tibetan monks to perform the unique religious ritual of painting religious symbols in colored sand. It will take them the entire exhibition period to finish the process and the picture will be revealed on the last day.

This is the first time that anyone has displayed so many authentic items from Tibet, said Wang Lina, the organizer of the exhibition.

"These are the items that Tibetans use in everyday life and we want to present the authentic and rich culture of Tibet," Wang said.

The exhibition hall is divided into 10 themes, ranging from traditional Tibetan medicine and Tibetan masks to modern Tibetan lifestyle and contemporary Tibetan paintings.

Tibetan farmers will teach visitors traditional dances. Doctors of Tibetan medicine will display their unique methods, and Tibetan craftsmen will make colorful Thangka, painted or embroidered Buddhist banners, in the exhibition hall.

After its first stop in Shanghai, the exhibition will tour the country until 2010.

Tickets cost 60 yuan (US$8.70) a person and the exhibition is scheduled to close on December 21.

(Shanghai Daily December 8, 2008)