[tibet]Tibet harbors both tradition, change
Posted:2007-3-19|Source:South California News|No. of Views:
By PAILIN WEDEL
The News & Observer (Raleigh, N.C.)
I bet Tibetans love Darwin.
Many Tibetans believe that they descended from an ape: A monkey-god married a mountain ogress and produced six monkey-ogress hybrids that eventually lost their animalistic quality to become the Tibetan people.
I see illustrations of this complicated love story, of Buddhist and Tibetan mythical history intertwining on the walls of the Potala palace in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet.
Lhasa translates as "Place of the Gods." It is one of the highest cities in the world, situated at about 12,000 feet -- a little less than twice the height of Mount Mitchell, North Carolina's highest point. Here, the thin, crisp air is scented with a mix of incense and yak-butter smoke from the monasteries.
Tibetans believe that spinning prayer wheels and placing prayer flags on rooftops helps release a mantra -- "Om mani padme hum" or "Hail the Jewel in the Lotus" -- into the sky. If we could hear this spiritual technology at work among all the prayer wheels and flags in Lhasa, it would sound like a thousand-person choir.
Yet a short walk outside of the square reveals a more modern Tibet.
Buddhist monks press the latest-model cell phones to their ears to chat while they spin their prayer wheels. High-speed Internet cafes sit next to tea shops that use coal-burning stoves.
On a drive from Lhasa to Namtso Lake, I pass the Polo & Racquet Club. I also see motorbikes parked in front of yak-skin tents, where smoke rises from burning dung cakes.
Snooker tables line rural town squares, but the players are drokpas -- nomads -- dressed in capes designed to keep sand and dust out when windstorms blow by.
And you can't help but notice that the rate of change is getting quicker. Since the opening of the new Skyline train, about 4,000 Han Chinese people arrive each week by railway. As a result of government incentives and the convenience of the train, many stay -- they already outnumber Tibetans 2-to-1 in Lhasa.
While the mysticism in Tibet may stretch my imagination, the inevitability of its fast-paced modernization does not. Tibet could very quickly become another place where development means a gradual loss of cultural identity and tradition. As I pass yet another red-robed lama chatting on his cell phone, it is also hard to imagine a future Tibet without this new evolution.
IF YOU GO ...
GETTING THERE: There are no direct flights to Tibet from the United States. There are flights from Beijing (via Chengdu, Chongquing or Xining), Chamdo, Kathmandu, Xi'an and Zhongdian to Gongkar airport, the nearest airport to Lhasa. A railway that opened this year runs from Beijing, Chengdu, Chongqing, Xining and Lanzhou.
