The maintenance project of Chamdo Champa Ling Monastery with above 90 million yuan of investment will be completed in June of 2014. [Photo/Xinhua]

According to Cultural Relics Bureau of Chamdo Prefecture of Tibet Autonomous Region, the maintenance project of Chamdo Champa Ling Monastery with above 90 million yuan (about 14 million U.S. dollars) of investment will be completed in June of 2014. It is one of the key projects in Tibet Autonomous Region during the "12th Five-Year Plan" and is also the first large-scale relic conservation project in Chamdo Prefecture. The Champa Ling Monastery was established in 1473 and is the largest Gelug monastery in Kham Area.

Lozang Chodrak, deputy director of Cultural Relics Bureau of Chamdo Prefecture, said the project had two periods. During the first period, the project focused on ancient architecture maintenance [with a total investment of 31.78 million yuan (about 5 million U.S. dollars)] and the construction was started on March 8, 2013, mainly strengthening and retrofitting the Du Kang Hall (the assembly hall), the Holy Shrine and the Scripture Printing Lamasery. By far the first period has been basically completed.

Now the second period of the project with pre-investment of 62 million yuan (about 10 million U.S. dollars) has been started its four sections one by one, including gate of bounding wall, fire pile, censer, square, inside and outside circumambulation, water supply and drainage, as well as virescence. Currently about 70 percent to 80 percent of the total project has been completed and the whole project will be fully finished in June of 2014.

The construction enterprise in charge of the project also participated in the three key cultural relics protection maintenance projects in the past years, including the Potala Palace, the Sakya Monastery and the Norbulingka.

Person in charge of the whole project said that the construction won't change the architecture's original state and its primary design will be kept by traditional handicrafts and materials.

The Chamdo Prefecture has started the special investigations since 2008 to record the important historical relics, ancient buildings, ancient sites, ancient books and movable cultural relics. Finally there are altogether 678 cultural relics in Chamdo Prefecture according to the latest statistics. From 2012 to 2013, 17 cultural relics protection projects in Chamdo Prefecture had been completed, achieving an investment of 320 million yuan (about 51 million U.S. dollars).

The maintenance project of Chamdo Champa Ling Monastery with above 90 million yuan of investment will be completed in June of 2014. [Photo/Xinhua]

The maintenance project of Chamdo Champa Ling Monastery with above 90 million yuan of investment will be completed in June of 2014. [Photo/Xinhua]

The maintenance project of Chamdo Champa Ling Monastery with above 90 million yuan of investment will be completed in June of 2014. [Photo/Xinhua]

The maintenance project of Chamdo Champa Ling Monastery with above 90 million yuan of investment will be completed in June of 2014. [Photo/Xinhua]