Lhasa is the capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region the political, economic, cultural, communication and transportation center for the entire region. It has a recorded history of more than 1,300 years.

Great changes have taken place in the city of Lhasa since the reforms and opening-up in 1979. The area has seen the construction of many new buildings including government buildings, hotels, night clubs, educational institutions combining traditional and modem styles. There are more than10,000 commercial stores in the city.

Lhasa's suburbs are developed in agriculture. Vegetables and meat production centres have been set up. The suburban road from the airport to the city is lined with long stretches of greenhouses, in which vegetables, such as tomatoes, chillies, cabbage, cucumber and turnips grow.

These greenhouses covered with plastic sheets over bamboo structures are interspersed with orchards of apple, peach, pear and walnut. Herds of yak, sheep and goats can be seen grazing on the meadows by the side of the Lhasa River. The villages are few and far between and resemble the villages in India especially in the Ladakh and the Spiti areas.

The houses are built of stone and surrounded by fluttering prayer flags and small white-washed stupas. Huge heaps of cow dung cakes dot the green fields as the dung is an important fuel for the villagers. Here and there one can see women clad in pants or long gowns grazing their cattle or working in their fields.

Tourist destinations

Apart from the Tibetan people who take up 87 per cent of the population of Lhasa, Han, Hui and some 30 ethnic groups also live here. Lhasa has more than 200 sites known for their cultural relics and more than 20 of them have already been opened to tourists. Main tourist destinations include the Potala Palace, Jokhang Monastery, Ramoche and the Sera monasteries, the Norbulingka. Cute little rickshaws will carry you to the Potala or the Jokhang.

The glittering Barkhor Street is the place where religion and commerce meet. The huge area through which a broad street runs just in front of the Jokhang Monastery is always buzzing with activity. The huge quadrangular space at the entrance of the monastery is the best place to beat all times of the day. Here one can observe the men and women offering oil lamps to Buddha and burning incense. Devotees kiss the ground and prostrate themselves.

Just outside the square in the lanes and bylanes of the Barkhor Street jewelled Tibetan women sell antique jewellery, statues of Buddhist deities and also of Chairman Mao. DVDs of Indian films are very popular with the Tibetans and almost everyone knows Shahrukh Khan, Priety Zinta and Kaj ol. Dance numbers of Urmila Matondkar are also very popular and one can see the famous actress gyrating to loud music on the TV sets in the Barkhor Bazaar. The best gifts to buy are stone bead necklaces made by Tibetan women in their homes.

No Mini-Lhasa in Dharamsala

Many Indians happily describe Leh (in Ladakh) and Dharamsala (in Himachal Pradesh) as the "mini-Lhasa" of India. Apart from the fact that Tibetans form a large part of the population in these towns, there is little else by way of material development that can make these towns eligible as "mini-Lhasa."

A visitor to Dharamsala will at once notice the deplorable conditions in which the Tibetans eke out a living in the filthy and narrow back lanes of the township. Amid heaps of garbage and bursting pipelines Tibetan women sell momos and other Tibetan delicacies. The resthouses for Tibetan refugees in the dirty bylanes are teeming with men, women and children. I went inside a refugee shelter not far away from the Namgyal Monastery. The bathrooms were stinking and the rest halls were crowded with charpoys.

I also happened to be in Ladakh in May 2005, and had a taste of the poor condition of roads. Even the westerly Leh-Kargil road on which I was travelling up to Lamayuru was not only narrow but also pot-holed and dusty.

The only mobile phone service that worked in Leh town was Cell One, while the suburbs had no service. Even the important monasteries like the Lamayuru, the Alchi, the Hemis and the Spituk on the Leh- Kargil and the Leh- Manali road showed little or no upkeep.

No comparison with Lhasa

At least for those who have visited Lhasa recently and have seen the pace of development here will not commit the folly of comparison. The capital city of Lhasa is clean, well spread out and has well swept six-lane roads. On either side of the road stand beautiful and fancy lamp-posts that illuminate the streets with high-powered bulbs.

Even the suburbs are well connected through land and mobiles phones. Not one but many mobile phone services are available throughout the long highways connecting other provinces of China.

The Chinese government is also spending millions of yuan on the restoration of the monasteries and historical monuments.

On the Potala Palace alone, the Chinese government has spent about 200 million yuan (US$ 25 million) to strengthen the foundation. The Norbunlingka or the Summer Palace of the Dalai Lama is in for an intensive restoration work currently under way. Similarly, restoration work is also in progress at the Ramoche Monastery which belongs to the seventh century.

(China Daily November 9, 2006)