In a small, remote town in southwest Sichuan Province of China, the training of traditional Tibetan arts, such as Thangka, Tibetan costumes, carved stones, Tibetan incense is very popular, offering hopes to hundreds of young Tibetans of making a living and promoting Tibetan culture.  

The 23-year-old Rongying is currently learning the art of Thangka in Zamtang County, Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan.    

“If I can master Thangka painting, I can become a teacher later on, or I can paint my own paintings and the school will help with sales,” Rongying said.   

The training base where Rongying is learning was established in 2009, when Jamyang Lekdrup, vice-chairman of Zamtang People’s Political Consultative Conference set up a Thangka training class so as to solve the local young's unemployment problem.

Eight years later, the training class has become a learning base of more than 400 people.

Students can learn the arts of Thangka, Tibetan clothing, Tibetan medicine and other traditional skills free of charge. Today, there are 10 such organizations throughout Zamtang County, covering handicrafts, music, medicine, opera and others.    

The Zamtang county government has already included funds for subsidizing its ten training organizations into the financial budget.  Subsidies are granted annually based on the scales in the standard of 10,000 to 50,000 yuan(1,458 to 7,292 US dollars).    

All training organizations in Zamtang County provide free training, and students are able to receive a subsidy of 300 yuan per month during the school term.    

In addition, Zamtang County has invested more than 20 million yuan(2.9 million US dollars) in order to build an Intangible Cultural Heritage Training Enterprise Park.