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Where the Old and New Meet in Lhasa  

cctv.com 08-30-2005 13:46


Hello, I am Daniella Kuhn. Welcome to Rediscovering China. I am walking down one of the oldest streets in Lhasa, Barkhor Street. That鈥檚 some fun you get on Barkhor Street. Some local entertainment. It is one of the things 鈥 before we come here, like a ghost following me. It鈥檚 really amazing that cross-section society get here in Tibet. You get fun people dressing the traditional garb. You also get kids dressed in new designer鈥檚 cool do dress. You get all the shops selling souvenirs, food, meat, everything you think of want to get in Barkhor Street. It鈥檚 my second day in Lhasa. I fell I am doing pretty well. They say it takes three days to get rid of the high altitude sickness. I still have a little bit of mild headache and tiredness. It really kills in the first night here, just a scorching headache. You can鈥檛 get up, and run around as you normally can. I am a New Yorker. When I am told to walk slowly for days to get used to the air, it鈥檚 pretty difficult. But, I think I am getting into this slow saunter to find out the Tibet life style. Let鈥檚 go and see some more.


Jokhang Temple is the spiritual center of Tibet and as a result lies at the center of old Lhasa. This temple reflects the highest level of old Tibetan architecture. Every day, people from every corner of Tibet would make a pilgrimage here.


The monastery was built in 647 by Songtsen Gampo, the king who unified Tibet, and his two wives, the Tang Dynasty Princess Wencheng and the Nepalese Princess Tritsun. It is said that Princess Wencheng, herself, personally chose the current location of Jokhang Temple. In the central hall is the oldest and most precious object in Tibet - a sitting statue of Sakyamuni when he was 12 years old. It was brought here by Princess Wencheng from her home in Chang鈥檃n, then the capital City of the Tang Dynasty.


Barkhor Street鈥檚 history is as long as Jokhang Temple鈥檚. With the temple built, ordinary people gradually came, converging and settling around the temple to offer all sorts of services for the temple鈥檚 needs. So, Barkhor Street is more a community, than simply a road. Currently, more than 2,000 households reside in these zigzagging narrow alleys, reflecting the traditional ways of the Tibetan people here.Every day you see Buddhists from all over on their pilgrimages, tramping along Barkhor street, as they have through centuries. They walk along the streets bodylengths, clockwise every day and deep into the night.


The marketplace here takes up both sides of the sacred pilgrim path. Shops and stalls sell various religious items like printed scriptures and cloth prayer flags. They also sell jewelry, Tibetan knives, ancient coins and other Tibetan relics.In recent years, the increasing number of tourists has pushed the prosperity to a new high, giving rise to the local standard of living.

With the opening-up policies, more and more foreign tourists are allowed to come here. Some of the dealers here have learned to pick up basic English, a necessary skill to stay competitive here, when bargaining with foreign tourists.

Barkhor Street is not merely filled with devout pilgrims and vendors selling souvenirs. It is actually a place where Tibetan culture, religion, business and arts assemble. For example, you can find shops selling the traditional art of Thangka.


Thangka is a painted or embroidered Tibetan banner which is hung in a monastery or a family altar. It is carried by lamas in ceremonial processions. Thangka has a very long history here. In the past it mainly dealt with religion, but in more recent years it has expanded into various other motifs, like landscapes.In terms of painting techniques, Thangka borrows from other schools of painting such as oriental and oil.

The physical construction of a thangka, as with the majority of Buddhist art, is highly geometric. Arms, legs, eyes, nostrils, ears, and various ritual implements are all laid out on a systematic grid of angles and intersecting lines. A skilled thangka artist will generally select from a variety of predesigned items to include in the composition, ranging from alms bowls and animals, to the shape, size, and angle of a figure's eyes, nose, and lips. The process seems very scientific, but often requires a deep understanding of the scene being depicted, in order to capture the essence or spirit of it.

You know up to five years ago, women were not allowed to do this including this. If I would not fake it, I would ruin this painting with my awful talents.


Looking beyond Barkhor Street, you find that Lhasa is surrounded by mountains and ranges like the Himalayan. Visitors tired of the bustling streets of Barkhor might be eager to seek a change in the serene mountains. Indeed, many of them challenge themselves to hike those lofty and mysterious mountains.

Sensing the opportunities brought by the influx of climbers, the Tibetan Mountaineering Guide School was founded in 1999. The school uses a comprehensive system to train local Tibetans the skills and services necessary for working as guides in these mountains. Their efforts have raised the level of safety of this dangerous sport.

Here, students learn quite a few skills useful for their future careers including English, first aid and even the art of filming.

I am hiking here, 4700 meters. At base camp of Chitzi Mountain, students from China Mountaineering Guide School set up base camps here. Let鈥檚 see how they are doing.

We would鈥檝e guessed in this far middle of nowhere, you have access to this sort of technology. Tibet has 40 to 50 tallest mountains in the world, which means a lot of foreigners. It is competitive for all the travels guide groups like China Mountaineering Guide School to provide all these staff.

Those advanced communication devices used in hiking is closely related to the booming telecom industry in Tibet. For the last 50 years it has been slowly building up. Every village is now connected to a fixed line service. In the past 10 years, mobile users increased by 282 times! And just like every other part of the world, Tibet is on line!


Yep, that鈥檚 familiar. Sitting in front the terminal and with a cup of coffee right here. If don鈥檛 look out the window, I would really feel like back in the States. It鈥檚 amazing. The world is just getting a lot smaller.

Barkhor Street not only showcases the deeply tradtional painting of thangka, but the new emerging modern artists and their contemporary visual styles.

This little gallery was opened two years ago, by a group of painters in Lhasa, called Gedun Choephel Artists Guild. Its purpose is to show their art and to advance their heady goal of reinterpreting modern Tibetan culture.


They are a group of young, modern Tibetan artists who have the same lifestyle as many of their counterparts in other corners of world. They like fast food, movies and rock and roll. They like to keep up with the times and trends, and hope people will see that Tibet is more than a place of religion. But, that does not take away their respect and value the traditional aspects of their unique cultural heritage.

Against the sunset, Barkhor Street seems less crowded than in the morning. But, that doesn鈥檛 means a day in Barkhor will come to an end. In the evening, something more fascinating and surprising comes to life on this ancient road.

After a day of walking, I am here at Naga restaurant. Food from many countries. It results from opening up of Lhasa.

Now, that dinner is finished. Where should people go? Of course the local pub. These are sure to be the highest pubs in this world. There are many to choose from on Barkhor Street. You can enjoy pop music, beers and western food here.


Lhasa is not dominated by low-pitch horns blown by the monks, religious chanting and folk music. The trend of popular music has been picked up, here on the roof of the world. The band, Zimig Gupa, made up of five amateur pop singers, performs in this club quite often. They鈥檝e already released two albums, which are a mixture of folk music, western blues and jazz.

This was the oldest building on Barkhor Street. It鈥檚 being tired down right now. It鈥檚 too bad.

Barkhor Street is a mish-mesh of locals and foreigners, old generations and new generations, walking among each other. It is microcosm of Lhasa itself. It鈥檚 saving the past while walking into the future. I am Daniella Kuhn. Thanks for watching Rediscovering China.

Editor:Hu  Source:CCTV.com


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