Movies have been made about it, and countless stories have been written about it: Tibet. A captivating land that still attracts tourists from home and abroad. People are amazed by its natural landscape and intrigued by its exotic ethnic culture. As we just learned, a forum of experts from home and abroad have gathered in Tibet to discuss the future development of the region. This year's topic? How to merge the traditional with the modern.
A forum of experts from home and abroad have gathered in Tibet to discuss the future development of the region.
The forum is a brainstorming session for cultural experts and tourism officials, and their goal is a simple one: coming up with new ideas on developing the region's cultural projects - projects that will lure more people to Tibet via the unique cultural and natural charm of the region.
Delegates were invited to watch the landscape drama "Princess Wencheng", which has become a recent tourist attraction in the region. It tells the story of Tang dynasty Princess Wencheng, who traveled from Xi'an to Tibet to marry the King Songtsan Gampo - the then governer of Tibet. The drama incorporates the natural landscape, Tibetan opera, song and dance, and other elements of the region's intangible cultural heritages into one big extravaganza for the stage.
"Yesterday's performance was really mind-blowing. The natural environment on the stage - the setting for the drama - was marvelous. The mountains in the background, the real animals, all very impressive. Other than that, it was a pretty clear story on the history of Tibet. A lot of local people were invovled in the performance. I think it was fantastic," said Jin T.W. Stoopman, forum attendee.
It's the fourth year that princess Wencheng has been performed before an audience. It is now a must-see show in Tibet for tourists. But so is the Potala Palace and Jokhang Temple, which currently has a total of 840-thousand viewers to date, and an earning of 332 million yuan at the box office. It's a good example of how to showcase the best of Tibetan culture in an intriguing way to modern audiences. And that's the core focus of this forum: how to integrate the traditional with the modern.
A forum of experts from home and abroad have gathered in Tibet to discuss the future development of the region.
"To keep the essence of Tibetan culture while discarding what drags it down, that's how we want our regional culture to get developed over time," said Zheng Dui, researcher, China's Tibetan Research Center.
John Ford is the manager of a documentary company from New Zealand. His speech is entitled "Tibet is the representative of China's cultural and ecological variety".
"We've shot five documentaries on Tibet, and we'll shoot one on Tibet's wild life," he said.
Ford says the best way to preserve the region's culture, is to do it by developing new cultures. Forum attendees visited temples, viewed murals and Tangkas. Some people say that Tibet should be rediscovered through the details.
"Murals and Tangkas have contained the line of history and culture of Tibet. We should look at them closely and learn more about the land," said a forum attendee.
Experts are also discussing how to preserve the positive aspects of Tibetan cultures and values and incorporate them into modern-day values. The forum is about how to retain tradition in the process of development.
