Opening homes and hearts to tourists gives Tibetans new life
Print Edition
DRESSED in traditional brocade finery, a young Tibetan woman welcomes her guests with true Tibetan hospitality — barley wine, white silk hada scarves and her bright smile.
Her guests, a group of tourists from north China’s Inner Mongolia, will spend one night at Dekyi’s house to enjoy typical Tibetan food and spend a night under the rafters of an authentic Tibetan home.
College graduate Dekyi, 24, chose not to follow her brother and sister, who both work in Lhasa, capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region.
Instead, she returned to Weiba, a tiny village outside Lhasa, and converted her family’s two-story courtyard house into a homestay, which she called “Lhasa Family.”
The stone, clay and wood house features rooms painted in warm colors with Tibetan paintings and textile hangings.
She also turned one of the larger rooms into a gallery to display her family’s collection of antiques and objects d’art, such as musical instruments and agricultural tools.
“I love to show my guests around this room, and tell them about these objects and share stories about my family,” Dekyi explained.
Dekyi wanted to create a comfortable, welcoming space where tourists feel at home.
One guest said she was really made to feel welcome.
“We eat what they eat every day and do what they do. I feel no distance from their life at all,” she explained.
As the number of tourists to Tibet increases, the Lhasa Tourism Bureau has responded by rolling out measures to support homestays and guesthouses, and now more and more Tibetan families are opening their doors to tourists.
It is estimated that about 600 guesthouses will open over the next five years.
While guesthouses offer tourists a chance to experience Tibetan culture firsthand, they also bring more opportunities to Tibetans.
Dekyi has hosted nearly 700 tourists since her guesthouse opened in February.
“I have made friends with people from different countries and know more about the world thanks to the stories they shared,” she said. “They made this once quiet house lively and our lives more diverse.”
For Dawa, 64, who also runs a guesthouse in Weiba, his life has taken a turn for the better since he opened his doors to tourists in July.
“In the past, my family’s life solely relied on farming and in winter, there was nothing to do,” he said. “We only made 20,000 yuan (US$2,900) a year. But now, we can make over double that thanks to the guesthouse.”
Kunga, who manages a larger resort-style guesthouse named “Kyishod Khangsang” in Lunzhub County near Lhasa, has created jobs for his neighbors.
He employs 49 people. Tourists can try on traditional Tibetan costumes and learn how to make butter tea and local food. And he plans to open a space to display Tibetan cultural items, from pottery to thangka to wedding rituals.
“This will give tourists a more all-round experience of Tibetan life and customs,” Kunga said. About 21 million Chinese and foreign tourists visited Tibet in the first three quarters of 2016, up 20.4 percent year on year.
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