The natural landscapes and cultural sceneries in Tibet are splendid and colorful, and its tourism resources are abundant, providing unique advantages for tourism development. Striving to develop the tourist industry with local and ethic features is one of the feasible and important ways to realize the fast development of Tibetan economy and society. This article, from the perspective of culture, deals with issues on protection and development of resources of Tibetan cultural tourism.

I. The Past and Present Situations and the Future Prospect of the Tibetan Tourist Industry

There has been almost no trace of tourism in Tibet by the end of 1978. The reform and opening-up police has activated a large number of industries including tourism to thrive in Tibet. With the founding of Tourism Administration Bureau of TAR in 1986 as a remarkable milestone and after more than 20 years continuous expansion, Tibetan tourism has been on the fast track at present.

In 1980, there was only a guest house available for overseas guests with no more than 100 beds in TAR. While as of today, there are 45 travel companies and agencies, 71 star-rated hotels and 535 non-star-rated hotels with a total of 16,852 rooms and 39,144 beds. The number of beds available for guests in Lhasa alone is up to 19,000 (including 2.000 from farmers' household inns).

The rapid development of the newly emerged industries headed by tourism has triggered dramatic changes in industrial structure of Tibet. Before 1997, the order of proportion of the three types of industries, from large to small,  was the primary, tertiary and secondary; after 1997, this order was changed to the tertiary, primary and secondary, marking the first time when the proportion of the tertiary industry overtook that of the primary. In 2003, the order was further changed to the tertiary, secondary and primary, indicating that the proportion of the secondary industry surpassed that of the primary. In 2004, the output value of the tertiary industry increased by 11.06 billion yuan RMB and its proportion to the total value of GDP of TAR ranked first, showing that the tertiary industry became the largest industrial type and tourism became the leading industry of the six major industries in Tibet.

In 2004, Tibet received 1.2231 million tourists from home and abroad (of which 1.1273 million are domestic tourists), with total revenue of tourism amounted to 1.532 billion yuan RMB (accounting for 7 % of GDP of Tibet of the same year), and for-exchange income registered 36.60 million US dollars. In 2005, Tibet received 1.8006 million tourists from home and abroad, a 47.2% increase year on year (of which, domestic tourists increased by 49% and the overseas by 26.6%); the total revenue amounted to 1.935 billion yuan RMB , a 26.3% increase year on year and accounting for 7% of GDP of Tibet of the same year. In the first eight months alone of 2006, Tibet received 1.5 million tourists, with total revenue of tourism amounted to 1.46 billion yuan RMB. Obviously, Tibetan tourism of huge potentials has already been faced with an unprecedented historical opportunity to leap forward. It is becoming the most important pillar industry with ethnic features in the economical development of Tibet and is playing a vital role to revitalization of the economy.

In recent years, the Tourism Administration Bureau in Tibet has been striving to open up new tourist programs with local and ethnic features based on the local conditions. In addition to the existing types such as landscape tourism, cultural tourism and folkway and customs tourism, the scientific investigation tourism for various disciplines such as religion, history, sociology, economics, archaeology, arts, medicine, ethnic groups and etc., has showed its huge potentials. At present, the number of tourist sites in Tibet open to the public has amounted to more than 60. For example, four circum-Lhasa travel itineraries respectively in eastern, western, southern and northern parts of the city are available now; four tourist regions namely, Lhasa, western Tibet, southwestern Tibet, southern Tibet with different features has taken their shape; and the strategy of exploring and using the tourist recourses, which is geographically centered by Lhasa, then by Xigatze and Shaanan combined prefectures and radiated to Nagqu, Ngari and Nyingchi prefectures, has been laid out.

With the Qinghai-Tibet railroad coming to operation and the founding and application of the Nyingchi Airport, the Tibetan tourist development is given much stronger momentum and has showed a rapid development trend. The tourists to Tibet amounted to more than 0.9 million in this July and August, a 32.9% increase year on year and with 0.94 billion yuan RMB of tourist revenue, a 32% increase year on year. It is expected that Tibet will receive more than 2.5million tourists this year which will strikes a historical high point. The fact has proved that the tourism industry will benefit most after the operation of the Qinghai-Tibet railroad. The TAR has established the tourism as one of the six characteristic pillar economical industries in Tibet, and settled down the developing goals and ideas of the tourism to insure that Tibetan tourism will succeed to make dramatic progress. During 2006 and 2010, Tibet will carry out the guideline government guiding, organization interacting, market - oriented operation, companies managing and society participating, integrate scientifically the traveling itineraries and products, open up measurably some overseas traveling routes, and promote the tourism industry to realize its fast development in the first place and then let it play a radiating , driving and accelerating role both in the fast development of the economy and society and in the course of building of a Well-off society in an all-round way. Construct energetically the four direction traveling routes around Lhasa , combine to explore the district around Qinghai-Tibet area and Sichuan-Yunnan-Tibet area, exert to forge great brands such as Potala Palace, Mount Qomolangma, Tea-horse ancient road, Shangrila, the Road to heaven and etc, dig deeply the cultural meanings of the tourist resources, strive to form a exploitation network of the tourist resources that centers in Lhasa and relies on the national highways and provincial highways and also radiates the whole municipality, upgrade the status and function of the main industry of tourism. By 2010, it is expected to form preliminarily an all-around tourist industry system including programs like sight-seeing, expedition, recreation and vacation.  And the gross income of the tourism industry will account for more than 10% of the total municipal GDP. A research paper predicted that the average yearly growth rate of the tourists number will increase to around 30% after the operation of the Qinghai-Tibetan railway, and it will enhance the Tibetan tourism industry to achieve a fast development. By 2010, the number of people to Tibet is expected to reach around 5.28 million, and the tourist industry will bring 5.811 billion yuan RMB direct revenue for Tibet. At that time, the ratio of the direct revenue of the tourist industry will account for 15.93% of the total GDP, while the intermediate revenue will account for more than 60%.

II. The Humane Significance of Developing Tourist Industry in Tibet

The development experiences around the world have proven that a main communication artery for economy and culture will always have a significant effect on the cultural development and the progress of the society along the line. The operation of the Qinghai-Tibet railroad is definitely an great event of epoch-making significance in the history of Tibetan culture development .It will push forward a series of industries with the tourism as the leading industry ,improve the economical and cultural communication between Tibet and outside world, and promote the long lasting development of the economy and culture in Tibet. The humanism significance can be demonstrated from the following aspects

It will bring along substantial economical profits to the ordinary people living in Tibet. The thriving of the tourism and the increase of the population movement and physical distribution will provide them with far more job opportunities and ways to become rich. The developing potentials of the traditional industries in the vast farming-pastoral region in Tibet is quite limited, so carrying out sight-seeing programs around the farming-pastoral region, life experiencing programs in the countryside, ethical culture tourism programs, mountain expedition tourism programs and holiday tourism programs not only will be an effective way for the farmers and herdsmen to become rich ,but is an important direction to expand the economical domains in farming-pastoral regions. Nowadays, around more than 300 farmers and herdsmen in Tibet have taken the initiative to become rich by gaining comfortable tourism income. In 2005, more than 30 thousand farmers and herdsmen have realized a growth in their earnings by taking part in tourist reception service with the per capita income increasing by 2,000 yuan RMB. The dramatic fall in the costs of transportation has narrowed the gap of costs between different districts and presented the ordinary people with obvious profits, so the purchasing power of the Tibetan people will eventually improve along with it .As for the monasteries, a growing number of tourists will objectively be beneficial to increase the income of the monasteries and improve the living condition of the monks. Obviously, the best and most direct beneficiary of the improvement of the transportation and the development of the tourism are the monks and laity public in Tibet.

It is helpful to communicate and promote the intercourse of culture between different ethnic groups, make the ways of communication more diverse, promote the solidarity and co-prosperity of all ethnic groups, consolidate further the great unity of the Chinese nation, and lay a more solid and stable ideological foundation for maintaining the unification of our nation and the solidarity of all ethnic groups voluntarily. Henceforth, the depth, scope and frequency of the contact between Tibet and other parts of the homeland, Tibetan nationality and other brother nationalities will be enhanced continuously with a far more intimate relation between each other. With the frequent come-and-go along the economical, rapid and convenient Qinghai-Tibet railroad, both the farmers and herdsmen in Tibet and the inland people in every province will benefit from it, and it is definitely helpful to deepen the unswerving patriotism and scientific ethos of all ethnic groups. The warmth of the great family of the Chinese nation, the sense of pride and the sense of honor as being a Chinese and the principle of “Three inseparables will inevitably take a deeper and firmer root in the hearts of people of all nationalities including the Tibetan people.

It is favorable for advancing the enterprise of protecting, inheriting and developing the Tibetan culture. One of the extraordinary characteristics of the history of the Tibetan culture development is that it has been assimilating different kinds of advanced cultural elements from the neighboring nationalities and districts, and absorbing comprehensively the essentials of the neighboring cultures. The splendid achievement of the ancient Tibetan culture relied, on a great extent, on the economical and cultural communication with the neighboring districts and brother nationalities, as well as constant learning and assimilation of the essence of different cultures. Along with the great improvement of the transportation and the flourishing of the tourist industry, more than millions of foreign and domestic tourists not only will bring along generous profits for the local finance and tourist industry in TAR, especially for the local people, but will also act as a messenger for promoting the cultural communication between different parts of the world. With the improvement of the transportation and the development of the tourist industry, and together with the progress in the technological means and the continuous development of the economy and society in Tibet, the conditions will become more mature to rescue, protect, collate and research in a full scale of all kinds of tangible cultural heritage, intangible cultural heritages, history archives and ancient books in the magnificent traditional culture of Tibet. Besides, the economical profits that generate from the tourist industry will effectively increase the funds that invest on the protection, rescue, inheriting and development of the Tibetan cultural resources. On the other side, the previous cultural interacting and communication between Tibet and Gansu, Qinghai, Sichuan and Yunnan provinces have been hindered by such factors as inconvenient traffic and closed consumer market. The improvement of the traffic conditions and the exploitation of the tourist resources will provide unprecedented convenience for the communication, mutual learning and mutual promotion within the Tibetan people, as well as for the cultural protection and development of Tibet and other parts of the Municipality. For instance, in recent years, vast markets for mutual exchange of needed products and infinite business opportunities for large-scale production have been provided for the production of a great number of tourist products and ethical necessities marked by their ethnic and local features .And the Kumbum Monastery in Qinghai ,the hometown of the Master Zongkapa who is the founder of the Tibetan Buddhism Gelun Sect, has been tightly connected with the four major monasteries (including the three major monasteries of Lhasa and the Tashilhungpo Monastery) which were founded by the disciples of the Master Zongkapa and himself. Therefore, the pilgrimage of the monks to worship the Buddha and send their wishes all around the world does not necessarily last such long.

It is conducive for creating a window of the world for the international community to have a direct observation and understanding of the true situation of Tibet. Tibet possesses rich tourist resources that are incomparable with that of any other parts of the world. Its unique features have been attracting more and more overseas tourists. The snow-capped landscape and Tibetan culture are highly desired by the international tourists, and their enthusiasm in Tibet is booming. Tibet possesses the great potential to be constructed as a competitive world-level tourist resort. The vigorous expansion of the tourist industry will effectively reach the target of fast economical development in Tibet as soon as possible. And a large quantity of facts have already demonstrated that most of the westerners holding a just standpoint will come to an objective conclusion through direct observation of the real life in Tibet and the deep understanding of the past and present situation of Tibet. These are all of positive significance to correct the prejudice.

III. The Humanism Concerns of Developing Tourist Industry in Tibet

1. The Fundamental Categories of the Resources of Tibetan Cultural Tourism

It is a fundamental issue to come to understand the basic category of the resources of the Tibetan humane tourism. However, due to a lack of space and time, the author will just give a brief summary here

According to the international conventions, cultural heritage falls into two categories tangible cultural heritage and intangible cultural heritage. The Convention Concerning the Protection for the World Cultural and Natural Heritage has further divided intangible cultural heritage into three sub-categories namely the historical relics, historical buildings and archaeological sites. There are a lot of in Tibet available. The protection of the intangible cultural heritage in China, in the other words, the mechanism for preservation of the historical relics has long been established. The protection of the significant cultural relics units and other kinds of historical relics that have been evaluated and authenticated are under the protection of the state laws. The state-level protection organization for significant cultural relics has already publicized 6 groups of such relics since 1961 till now. At present, among more than 2000 different sorts of cultural relics protection units, there are 35 state-level significant cultural relics protection units, 48 municipality-level cultural relics protection units and 168 county-level protection units. Potala Palace, Jokhang Monastery, Norbu Lingka have already been placed under The List of the World Cultural Heritages. Lhasa, Xigaze and Gyanste county seat have been listed as the state-protected famous historical and cultural cities. As for the application and approving for the intangible cultural heritages, it has started for a short period of time, but it is already on the move. In May 20th, 2006, the State Council released the First State-level List of the Intangible Cultural Heritages, within which there were 15 projects applied by TAR. These projects can be divided into seven main categories as folk literature, folk dance, traditional opera, folk arts, traditional handicraft, traditional medicine and folk custom. The TAR has already launched and carried out a full-scale agenda for protection of the intangible cultural heritages, and there must be more cultural project coming to the List of Tangible Cultural Heritages.

According to the classification methods in the tourism textbooks, the resources of Tibetan cultural tourism could be generally classified into 9 categories——(1) palaeanthropic sites; (2) ancient buildings mainly including royal architectures, tombs, ruins of ancient buildings, abandoned sites of Noble residence houses and monastery architectures; monasteries; (3) park buildings; (4) scenic resorts; (5) folkways and custom, main traditional festivals; (6) folk and religious arts; (7) traditional technologies and techniques;  (8) religion;  (9) museums, monuments and etc.

The fact is quite clear that there are various categories of resources of the Tibetan cultural tourism, and they are full of rich meanings and featured by their unique features. Religion culture is just one of the components of the traditional Tibetan cultures. However, the view of some people of regarding Tibetan Buddhism as the mainstream of the traditional Tibetan culture is not true and reasonable. It is of significance to come to understand objectively its basic categories in an all-around way for a rational exploiting and utilization of the resources of the Tibetan cultural tourism.

2. The Protective Exploitation and Sustainable Utilization of the Cultural Tourism Resources

The dramatic increase of the tourists and the fast expansion of the tourism market is a double-edged sword. It will promote the Tibetan tourism, drive the development of the food industry, lodging, traffic, shopping, recreation and etc. But at the same time, it will put forward a great challenge to the cultural meanings and the development orientation of the Tibet tourism. If it is well managed, they will bring out the best in each other; but if not, we will just attend to one thing and lose another.

It is not unnecessary for us to worry about that the great development of the Tibetan tourism will have some adverse effects on the protection of the Tibetan culture. It reminds us that we must handle calmly the relation between tourism development and culture protection, and avoid the detours that other districts have walked. However, we need not to hesitate for fear of running a risk. To our great relief, the construction programs in Tibet are all under the requests of environmental conservation. And the tourism industry in Tibet has reached a consensus that we should energetically develop ecotourism, and produce some green and fashionable products and tourist products with ethnic features. Carrying out the protective developing strategy of the cultural tourism resources is an important principle that we should always abide by in the process of the development of the Tibet tourism.

3. The Relation Between Traditional Cultures and Modern Cultures in the Development of Tourist Industry

Social development is a right that should be enjoyed by each ethnic group. It is an important mean and an engine to push the culture development. Cultural dissemination and exchanging are a kind of protection and promotion of itself. The developing of Tibetan opera In recent years can explain some of the questions.

To lead a civilized, wealthy and comfortable life as early as possible is desired by Tibetan people. However, some people with a back to the ancients mentality always hate to see the advancing and development of the Tibetan cultures. Though they indulge in the comfort and convenience provided by modern cultures to their heart's content, they hold that Tibet should maintain as a reserve for primitive cultures. In their opinion, the older and more backward a thing is, the better it is. In fact, Tibetan people not only need buttered tea and highland barley, but also need coffee and bread; they not only need traditional ethnic costumes, but also need jeans; they not only need Tibetan language, but also need the commonly used language of China as well as foreign languages; they not only need sand table and bamboo pens, but also need computers and internet. The rights of Tibetan people to pursue development should be respected.

The cultural advance of every ethnic group is the result of innovation on the basis of absorbing the traditions. Enhancing its essence and discarding the dross are a general rule of cultural development. ,We should inherit and develop the outstanding traditional cultures in a scientific manner, and explore the tourism resources that represent the excellent humane traditions of Tibetan people. There is no need to rediscover some content, which is in the interest of those conservative people and which have long been discard by Tibetan people; there is also no need to give up the rational and legal way of exploiting the resources.

An Caidan, Senior Researcher of China Tibetology Research Center

Oct.11,2006