Ministry: Quake causes severe damage to cultural heritage items

2008-06-14 20:51:54 China

In the provinces of Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu and Chongqing Municipality, 14 national-level intangible cultural heritage items were damaged, 15,009 precious items destroyed, and 27 museums and 17 folklore villages sustained severe damage, according to statistics released by the ministry. Read more

Beijing stages exhibit on quake-threatened Qiang culture

2008-06-14 15:31:44   China

The Qiang, who live mainly in northwestern Sichuan, are a very ancient ethnic group in China. The earliest documents mentioning them were inscribed bones or tortoise shells from the Shang Dynasty (16th-11th century BC) in central China about 3,000 years ago.

An exhibit on the culture of the Qiang ethnic minority opened here on Saturday, part of the government’s drive to raise public awareness of the need to protect the minority culture, whose survival has been threatened by last month’s earthquake.   Read more