The new face of Tibet
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THE NEW FACE OF TIBET
This year, for the first time I came in from the border of Tibet Zhangmu, ie land. There were also surprises.
The road from Kathmandu to Kodari arrives, even if a bit dangerous at this time of the landscape is beautiful, and seems to travel in advancing valleys populated by elves who live behind the waterfalls that descend from noisy and steep green slopes. Just do not look at gully to the side of the road. But this way I have known. For me, the surprises start at the Chinese border. An officer who, wonder, speaks English and is also kind, invites us to leave their passports because the border is now closed, you must return the next day. Flying! At dinner you go to a restaurant just beside the hotel, clean, friendly owners who respond to my Tibetan, and in the menu, among other items, is "meatballs." I do not but I take my friends to eat with gusto. First change in Tibet: You can also eat non-Chinese; restaurants in fashion to have a Nepalese chef, providing a great variety of dishes to please the palate of the tourists. The next day we start to climb towards Shegar, the day after to Shigatse. The road is horrible: that dirt fly but I knew no longer exists; huge holes everywhere, mud, fords. How many times the machine goes into a ditch and no one knows if a result. But the look on the smiling face of 'otherwise impassive "grandfather", my driver, is reassuring.
Immediately I think the deterioration of the road is due to the neglect of local authorities, but then I notice that the edges of the road dozens of people are working unperturbed by the rain. Later bulldozers, not to pull out bogged any Toyota, but for work ... The Chinese are asphalted road, the road! Incredible the deployment of men and means, for heights greater than 4500 meters. The results are seen after a few days on the road from the village of Nagartse salt to Kambala, nearly 5000 m. A few years ago I was often stopped for hours on this road was devastated by floods and landslides, and now the machine runs fast on a road to two lanes with guardrail at the edge and strip center that continues to meet all. The grandfather looks at me satisfied and I said "Ta Giop Lhasa Yonghe King" (now arrive Lhasa fast). In fact, a path that only last year was long and uncomfortable now is comfortably in few hours. Certainly something has changed on the top step: instead of picturesque heaps of earth now the flags are surrounded by Buff dall'asfalto ... a kind of flood on top of the step, after a quick glance at the magnificent lake surrounded by hours apocalyptic colors descend to the capital. The road is fast in the direction of Lhasa. A short distance from the capital on my right I see a ramp and a bridge that crosses the great river. Wonder what 'is and I am told that is the new road leading to the airport in 45 minutes instead of an hour and a half. I remain with the head turned for a while, stunned by the enormous work done in just over a year. I continue to look just like when a few hundred years ago, coming from the same road, we had to see the Potala.
And now "the beautiful Lhasa, Lhasa zepei" as it is called on the poster hanging in homes and shops in every corner of Tibet. See the whole valley full of buildings on this poster to fear the worst, get in the car in the modern part of town as well. But the barkhor, the heart of the city, I am reassured. The atmosphere was, the streets were, the old houses were Tibetan. Around the barkhor restaurants have sprung up, ambientini warm and clean, run by young Tibetan clothes, very casual, that offer Western dishes. I am amazed when I read the menu "fondue." And even more so when after a few minutes on the table. Excellent! 22:00 Leaving to the streets are still full of life, Tibetans and Chinese seem to walk safely under the lights of shops, disco, restaurants, in short seems to be in Kathmandu. For the visit of the Potala, the flow of visitors is regulated by fixed hours must obtain an appointment the day before. That's fine with this innovation, visit the Potala with its narrow corridors when it was super crowded with pilgrims and tourists had a sort of roads tortura.Nelle not feel tension, not feel danger, does not see a lot of police. We easily obtains a taxi at a fixed price per ride. The Lhasa offers all night. Returning to the hotel I am in the street below the Potala and I notice that the lighting is horrible from lampposts, an incredible kitsch. Between a lamp and the other I see a palm tree. A palm tree? A palm tree in Lhasa? Yes! Plastic, natural height, with leaves and lots of coconut hanging from a branch. Well, the rulers have wanted to give a touch of color in the middle all'asfalto and order of the city ...
When we head towards Tsedang ask the guide to take the new road to the airport, the one that made me turn my head up in Lhasa. Straight, smooth, fast, leads us to the mouth of the tunnel. The entrance is marked by the bright rainbows, almost phosphorescent. The interior reminds me of a tunnel European pitches relief, telephones for every hundred meters, aereatori huge hanging from time. Lacking only the toll! I shut up because I want to look carefully all around me and try to imagine what I can wait a few months when I come back. Perhaps a road that will link Lhasa with Nepal ...
You say: "Why do you marvel that these things are normal in Europe? Why I return to India, a country where the dynamism shown by the Chinese is simply unimaginable! Why, for the same climatic and environmental conditions by comparing the Ladakh to Tibet is a huge gap. Ladakh I love with all my heart, but I can not deny that in recent years the environment has degenerated, the smoke machine makes the air unbreathable, Leh is constantly shrouded in a thick blanket of pollution. Where is the difference? Best machines, gasoline cleaner ... The standard of living of the people and is better in Tibet, not only for the Chinese, including Tibetans. Since in most remote corners of Tibet, the plateau at 4500 meters, the nomadic people living in better conditions of her brothers in the Indian Changthang. Of this I was shocked .... I, who for ten years traveling in Tibet, noting the changes I can not honestly say that I disappointed by the ease of which all benefit, not just us, or Chinese, but also the Tibetans. Sure is a different Tibet from what I knew long ago. Perhaps the innovations can be criticized, and the pro-Tibetan and emotional propaganda Tibetan in Dharamsala say without doubt that the Chinese are distorting Tibet, are putting an end to its traditional way of life. Not discuss the influence of Chinese immigration, the fewer opportunities for employment of Tibetans compared to Han Chinese, on evidence and lack of freedom is still under a Communist regime. Just think that for the festivities on the occasion of the anniversary of 40imo autonomous region for 15 days will be denied entry to tourists! But, looking from the purely material, in the end ......... what part of the world has remained untouched by modernization and incontagiata that if we look honestly at the bottom of our hearts, is so convenient to all?
Franco Pizzi
Dharamshala, August 2005