Photo shows Drathang Monastery in Dranang County, Lhoka Prefecture of southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region. [Photo/Sina]

The first mural art museum of Tibet was opened in the Drathang Monastery of Lhoka Prefecture on July 8, 2013, marking the launching of Tibet's HD image database of mural art, according to Sina.com.cn.

Early this year, the pilot work of data collection was initiated in the Drathang Monastery with the support of financial and cultural departments of Tibet.

The data collection has been started in the Lhoka Prefecture, which is expected to be finished by the end of the year. And the work in other prefectures will be started on schedule as well.

At present, six mural paintings in the monastery have been represented in digital form, and the digital images have been repaired with computer image processing technique to show their original looks.

The rare mural paintings in the Drathang Monastery have a history of over 900 years, which are of great significance in the research of Tibetan history and culture as well as academic exchanges.

In the museum, the clear digital images bring people a more intimate contact with Tibetan art, and also provide scholars and experts with more detailed research data.

Now the Tibetan mural art is recorded, preserved and restored in the best way as those ancient mural paintings fade inevitably in the natural environment.