In October 2024, the Embassy of The People’s Republic of China invited me to join Swiss journalist Guy Mettan, and Spanish scientist and educator Gerard Ségû to poke around, kick the tires and look under the hood at the general state of affairs in Xizang and Qinghai.
Near Nyingchi City: Namcha Barwa Peak from Lunang Forest
Note that I avoided the name Tibet. Although there are significant differences in the meaning and implications of the names, for simplicity’s sake one might call this a rebranding effort to circumvent strong, negative connotations held in the West.
Lhasa: Potala Palace
Zhaxigang Village: Attention to detail
Friends from Hong Kong and Shanghai who visited Xizang in the 1990s and 2000s, described a desperately poor place. Fast-forward twenty years and overlay a modern infrastructure, and what I saw was very impressive.
Lhasa: Barkhor Street
Lhasa: Potala Palace Square
Environmental Stewardship: Exceeding the size of Western Europe at 2.6 million sq. km., in 2023 the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and surrounding territory was placed under legal protection of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau Act. There appears to be a strong commitment to the environment, with efforts to reverse desertification and return farmland to forest. Like Quebec, the region is rich in hydro power, supplemented by large solar and wind farms. Qinghai is now past the tipping point in replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy.
Gonghe: 50 MW solar thermal power station and outdoor photo studio
Lhasa: Barkhor Street
Lhasa: Captivated by or captive to their devices?
Education: Until the end of high school, it’s free and bilingual. Both Tibetan and Mandarin are compulsory. In Qinghai, we visited the Golog-Xining Ethnic High School that serves high-achieving youth from remote villages. Enrolment sits at 800, with 787 from ethnic minorities. The classes go well beyond the three Rs, ranging from calligraphy to robotics. I had the opportunity to partake in an English class. (Yes, that too is mandatory. No, Premier Legault, despite this egregious act, both Tibetan and Mandarin somehow are muddling through.) The lesson about adjectives was animated and engaging, with the teacher’s enthusiasm rubbing off on the students. No bored, underachievers here. In fact, the school – opened in 2019 – has a 100% graduation rate and in 2023, 71.43% of graduates continued their studies at universities throughout China.
Xining: Golog-Xining Ethnic High School
Lhasa: Art class, Xizang Museum
Tongren City: Huangnan Tibetan Museum
Alleviating Poverty and Creating Jobs: Here’s what I did not see – large-scale industrial projects promising hundreds or thousands of jobs. The region is too remote, the small population too spread out. There is recognition of the very remoteness and grandeur of the place being a business opportunity. In the shadow of the Namcha Barwa mountains in Xizang, several herding and farming families are supplementing their incomes by offering seasonal tourist accommodations and horseback riding. The villas they built are inspiring, a marriage of traditional style with modern amenities, waiting to be discovered by adventurous tourists.
Villages at nearly inaccessible, high elevations are being relocated to lower elevations and connected by road to the rest of the country. That, alongside broad access to 5G, has opened the smallest enterprise to faraway markets. I was intrigued by the range of business opportunities. Deji Village in Qinghai with a population of 946, is an amalgamation of 30 villages moved from high elevations to the valley floor. Its bread and butter is centred around cultural tourism and the plan seems to be working. One artist had created a mural from beads depicting the town. Everything appeared to scale, including new SUVs parked in front of most homes. On the opposite bank of the Yellow River another village took a different path, specializing in manufacturing precision, steel instrumentation.
In Lhasa, I visited the Snow Lotus Highland Cookware Factory, established in 2022. The marque is available only within Xizang, although exports to Nepal are being negotiated. Obviously this is not enough to sustain such an enterprise. Under agreements, the company’s high quality cookware is sold in the West with German, Danish, Italian and American branding.
Lhasa: Snow Lotus Highland Cookware factory
Tongren City: Break time
Religious Freedoms: When it comes to Xizang and the West, this is unquestionably the major sticking point. To my mind, before 1951 and the end of serfdom, Tibet was essentially a theocracy. Today, Buddhism continues to play a prominent role and appears widely practiced and supported by the state. The Xizang Buddhist Academy brings together students from the five sects of Tibetan Buddhism, offering 4 years of intensive and free religious education. In Beijing, at the China Tibetology Research Centre, ancient Buddhist scriptures that were captive to remote monasteries are being digitized and made available for widespread interpretation.
Lhasa: Xizang Buddhist Academy
Lhasa: Xizang Buddhist Academy
Near Xining City: The appropriately named Yellow Hats, Ta'er Monastery
Near Xining City: Bluetooth, Ta'er Monastery
A Funny Things Happened on the Way to the Potala Palace: One evening in Lhasa, I was walking with Guy and Gérard when some twenty-something guys passed us going in the opposite direction. In a remarkably Canadian moment one of the fellows, rather than saying “Hello”, welcomed us with a robust “Sorry”.
Tongren City: Sideways ballcap
Near Xining City: Enthusiastic, Ta'er Monastery
Near Xining City: TikToker, Ta'er Monastery
Lhasa: Handsfree, Xizang Buddhist Academy
Lhasa: In the paint, Xizang Buddhist Academy
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The Himalayas are nothing if not majestic and the plateau, ever-changing and mesmerizing. But I’ve been spoilt, having worked for many years in our very own, not-too-shabby Canadian Rockies, as well as the Peruvian Andes. Buddhism or, more accurately, my inability to make sense of its precepts, proved too much of a hurdle for this simple – overly selfish? – photographer. So, why am I so taken with Xizang and Qinghai? It’s the people! Based on what I read and had been told prior to leaving Montreal, I half-expected to see a divided society of Tibetans and Han Chinese, with the firm hand of the military keeping things in check. Instead, I learnt these two dominant groups have interacted since 670 AD. I then discovered a diversity that was as refreshing as it was surprising. 90% of China’s ethnic minorities call Xizang and Qinghai home. Together, they are building a dynamic, heterogeneous and caring society.
Near Xining City: A friendly face
Zhaxigang Village: The village leader
Lhasa: Fumbling for change, Barkhor Street
Deji Village: Always connected
Some will say that having spent a mere 9 days in this vast region, along with a lack of language skills and inability to access truly remote locations, should disqualify me from giving a well-considered opinion. All fair points belied by the invitation I received on the eve of my departure, to return to Xizang and continue my explorations.
Qinghai Lake: Melting snow and ice coating emergency access road
Deji Village: A step in the right direction