The Xizang Museum was inaugurated in October 1999 and opened to the public for free in July 2009. It is a comprehensive museum integrating collection and protection, education and research, as well as openness and service.
In 2017, the state invested 660 million yuan to renovate and expand the museum. Covering a total area of 65,000 square meters with a total construction area of nearly 63,100 square meters, the new museum mainly includes a display area, collection storage area, public service area, cultural relics protection and research area, comprehensive office area, etc. The overall building looks magnificent, calm and solemn, highlighting the distinctive sense of the times, innovation and national characteristics.
The newly built Xizang Museum, taking "Featured collection", "featured research", "featured exhibition", "featured education", "featured scientific protection" and "featured cultural innovation" as its concept and strengthening the sense of community of the Chinese nation as its main line, closely merges the work of the museum with the "four major events" of the region, makes every effort to build a plateau urban reception hall, and strive to write a new chapter of the high-quality development of the museum in the new era.
The basic exhibition of the Xizang Museum contains A Hymn for the Land of Snow---Xizang History And Culture and People Closest to the Sun---An Exhibition On Xizang Folk Culture. The special exhibition includes the Monuments of the Land of Snow---Xizang Revolutionary Relics and Memorial Hall of Xizang Serfs Emancipation. In order to meet the diverse cultural needs of the public at the same time, the museum also provides a children’s experience hall, a cultural and creative experience hall, a multi-function hall, a 4D cinema, a viewing platform as well as public services like café and canteen.
The museum has a perfect cultural relics collection system with the contents of good variety and quality, covering the timeline from ancient to present. The quantity of its collectibles now reaches 60,000 sets (about 520,000 pieces), which are mainly seals, letters, written admonitions, ancient books and documents, porcelain and jade ware, Thangkar sculptures, ivory carvings, lacquer works and so forth. Among them, more than 40,000 pieces are precious cultural relics.
Xizang Museum is a national first-class museum and a national 4-As tourist attraction. It has been successively entitled as a National Demonstration Base for Patriotism Education, a National Education Base for Ethnic Unity and Progress, a National Civilized Unit, a National Demonstration Base for Defense Education and other honorable titles.
