Development of the Tibetan studies is poised to enter a new phase, said Lhagba Puncog, head of China Research Center of Tibetan Studies, at a recent national conference on the research work.

Lhagba Puncog said China plans to establish a state-level award for Tibetan studies, which will be named after Mount Qomolangma.

The award aimed to help encourage more talented students to study Tibet, producing more academic works in the discipline. It will also enable China's Tibetan studies to become an international academic discipline, as Lhagba Puncog put it.

To raise China's status on the world Tibetan studies, Lhagba Puncog asked all related researchers and institutions across the nation to intensify cooperation so as to build a competent national web of research, education and publication for the Tibetan studies.

China now has scores of research institutions specializing in Tibetan studies, of which most are located in Tibet Autonomous Region and Tibet autonomous prefectures and counties in the western provinces of Sichuan, Qinghai, Gansu and Yunnan.

According to rough statistics, more than 3,000 books and about 30,000 theses on Tibetan studies were publicized in China during the past five decades. Tour de force include titles on Tibet's social conditions under the serfdom, the annotation of the Tibetan-language version of Buddhist scriptures and the Domgar Grand Dictionary of Tibetan Studies.