Tibetology, or Tibetan studies, is being reassessed to meet the new challenges ushered in by the social and natural changes on the "Roof of the World." according to today's China Daily.

    That was the message delivered by Tsewang Gyumey, director and research fellow with the Tibetan Academy of Social Sciences, to scholars at an international seminar on Tibetan studies which opened in Beijing yesterday.

    In a keynote speech, he said that the fostering of a new generation of Tibetan scholars with international perspectives will give the study more impetus as well as international recognition.

    And he told more than 170 scholars from 13 countries and regions besides China that five decades after the peaceful liberation of Tibet, Tibetan studies have grown into a multi-disciplinary genre covering a growing range of topics and involving more foreign scholars than ever before.

    "Many new research tools have been borrowed from other disciplines and have brought about bountiful achievements that have kept refreshing Tibetan studies," he said.

    The "Gesar," a saga of the legendary king of Tibet that has been passed by word of mouth by folk artists for more than 1,000 years, has been compiled into 50 volumes. Tsewang's academy is now engaged in the compilation of a 45-volume collection of the "Gesar" sung and narrated by old Tibetan artists.