China's cultural agencies have recovered and collected more than one million ancient ethnic books over the past 50 years in a bid to preserve precious cultural heritage.

"More than 5,000 types of books have been published," Tondrub Wangden, vice director of the State Ethnic Affairs Commission, said Thursday.

The published books include three most recognized ethnic heroic epics: the Biography of King Gesar, the Tibetan; the Life Stories of Janggar, the Mongolian; and the Manas of the Kirghiz.

China has 56 ethnic groups. The Han people accounts for 90 percent of its total population. 21 ethnic groups have their own written languages.

Tondrub said the government had made great efforts to help promote the popularization and development of ethnic languages.

He said China had 32 publishing houses producing books in 20 ethnic languages. Over 50 million books in ethnic languages were published each year.

In addition, 99 newspapers and 223 periodicals were issued in 10 ethnic languages.

The official also cited the five series of books -- The Ethnography of Ethnic Minorities, The Brief History of Ethnic Minorities, The Brief Records of Ethnic Minority Languages, The Brief Introduction of Ethnic Autonomous Entities, and The Survey Findings of Ethnic Minority Socio-History -- saying the information provided in these books covered nearly all walks of life of all ethnic groups in China.

The five series, compiled from the 1950s to the 1980s by over 3,000 Chinese scholars, comprise more than 400 volumes.

(Xinhua News Agency September 22, 2006)