Hungarian aid to save monastery in Tibet

September 3 2008/Budapest/MTI/TibetPress

Hungary\'s National Cultural Fund will contribute 2 million forints (EUR 8,400) to the budget of a team making plans to save a part of the ancient Zangla Monastery in west Tibet, the Cultural Heritage Service (KOSZ) told MTI on Wednesday. The monastery is of special interest for Hungary, because Hungarian orientalist Sandor Korosi Csoma (1784-1842) once spent 16 months there during an expedition to find the one-time homeland of Hungarian tribes in Asia. A six-strong team surveyed the building complex in August, and decided to start working on the north-eastern wing of the abandoned stone and adobe structure, where Korosi Csoma\'s room was situated. The monastery, which was originally built as the summer residence of the kings of Tibet, stands outside residential areas in a sand and stone desert, at a height of 3,700 metres.