Ten Chinese higher-learning institutes have jointly launched a project to digitize historical Tibetan-language documents in Lhasa, capital of southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region.

Ding Mingqin, deputy director of Tibet's science and technology bureau, said the institutes, including Tibet University and Wuhan University of Technology, will take advantage of internet technology when digitizing the documents to classify their contents, making them easy for online searches.

The project aims to rescue 10,000 ancient works in Tibetan language and establish a database for the documents, Ding said.

Ding said the work will improve efficiency when searching Tibetan documents and protect traditional Tibetan culture.

Areas of China with large Tibetan populations have accelerated preservation of historical documents in recent years. Qinghai Province, which neighbors Tibet, has completed digitization of more than 600 works on traditional Tibetan medicine. The books and documents were created between the 7th century and the early 20th century.