Tourism increase pressures Tibet’s historic websites

Lhasa, China: Tourism is booming in Tibet as more Chinese travel to the country due to the coronavirus pandemic, putting the region’s fragile environment and historic sites at risk.

In the Potala Palace, the former residence of the Dalai Lamas, the number of visitors is limited to 5000 per day. Balancing tourist demand with the need to minimize the wear and tear on the massive hill structure is an ongoing challenge, said Gonggar Tashi, the chief administrator.

A tourist takes a photo at Jokhang Temple in Lhasa, west China’s Tibet Autonomous Region, where tourism is booming.Recognition:AP

“The biggest challenge for us is the contradiction between the protection and use of the cultural relics,” Tashi told journalists in the Tibetan capital Lhasa.

He spoke during a government-organized tour that gave foreign journalists infrequent access to Tibet, but under the watchful eye of officials who set the agenda.

The growing numbers of tourists seem unaffected by the political controversies that have long encircled Tibet. China’s communist forces invaded the region in 1951 and the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s traditional spiritual and political leader, fled to India in 1959 during a failed uprising against Chinese rule.

Millions of visitors come to Tibet every year, and 2020 was up 12.6 percent year over year, said Ge Lei, deputy director of the China Tourism Marketing Association. He expects the number of visitors to roughly double by 2026.

Tourists wait to climb steps to an indoor area in the Potala Palace in Lhasa.Recognition:AP

The flood of visitors, which far exceeds Tibet’s population of 3.5 million, calls for caution to protect the environment and culture, he said.

Tourists are drawn to the “mystique and myth of Tibet as a remote, snow-capped land,” said Travis Klingberg, cultural geographer at NYU Shanghai. “But Tibet has become a place of beautiful natural landscapes that is important to the Chinese nation.”