Tibet began collecting Tibetan cultural relics on Jan. 6 from organizations and private collectors in China and abroad for the first Tubo Museum, which is currently being built, Xinhua News Agency reported.

The Tubo Kingdom (7th-9th A.D.) is the oldest regime in Tibetan history with written records, and its cultural heritage still exists today.

Tibet has recently been making efforts to build a Tubo touris area in Chonggye County, Lhoka Prefecture with the Tubo Museum highlighting the project. Since the Tubo era existed so long ago, Tubo cultural relics that can be shown today are relatively scarce and relics in some periods of the era are not available now.  So it is very necessary to begin collecting the artifacts, according to Dawa, chairman of the Tibet Culture and Tourism Group.

There is no deadline set for the current artifacts collection period, and thetwo ways of collecting include paid and unpaid donations. The content of the artifacts must reflect the politics, military, agriculture, handicrafts, metal smelting, Tibetan medicine, or astronomy calculation of the Tubo Kingdom period.