With an average elevation of more than 4,572 meters, the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) located at the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in the southwest of China is known as the roof of the world.
Its about 4 hours flight from the City of Beijing to the airport of Lhasa the capital of Tibet Province where only few trained and qualified pilots can manage to fly through the high and narrow mountains covering the very small airport.
With a population of about 3.21 million, the region is mainly inhabited by the Tibetan ethnic group that made up 92 percent of the total population with other minority ethnics groups which made up the remaining 8 percent.
The Capital City of Tibet, Lhasa, meaning ‘holy land’ in Tibetan has a history of more than one thousand three hundred (1,300) years. It is known as the political, economic, cultural and transporting center of the region.
This City commonly known as ‘the sun City’ enjoy about three thousand (3,000) hours of sunlight yearly which makes it very hot during the day and at night residents were encouraged to leave their windows open so as to allow some oxygen to enter their houses.
Before departing for this once in a life time trip to the world’s highest plateau, Tibet, our minds had been prepared by our host, the China Africa Press Center, about the weather condition with particular emphasis on the availability of limited oxygen due to its strategic location.
We were further informed that upon arrival none of us should think about taking a bath neither to climb stairs or walk fast, as such acts requires a lot of oxygen, but we thought it was just a form of exaggeration, so they are trying to prevent us from visiting the province.
Upon arrival at the Lhasa airport, we were welcomed by Senior officials with white scarf which they said is a symbol of peace and good luck and within 5 hours stay in our hotel signs of illness started surfacing among us, but readily there were two stand-by Doctors who worked tirelessly to ensure we are safe throughout our stay.
The situation became serious when one of our colleague Journalist posted his photo with the oxygen mask on his face on our we chat group, and few others started complaining about headache, upsets, breathing problem among others.
The following day everyone in the group was walking slowly just like walking on space where one has to count his steps.
Before the end of our four days visit in Lhasa City almost everyone in our group was supported with an oxygen machine either during day or at night as I myself also experienced it during the second night.
Despite these natural challenges which most people refer to as life threatening, the region recorded high number of Tourists both local and international visiting their historic sites such as the Potala Palace, the Joking Temple, mount Namjagbarwa, Yarlung Zangbo River, Grand Canyon and Basum Lake among others.
Tibet AR may be divided into two parts, the “lakes region” in the west and north-west, and the “river region”, which spreads out on three sides of the former on the east, south, and west. Both regions receive limited amounts of rainfall as they lie in the rain shadow of the Himalaya.
The region names are useful in contrasting their hydrological structures, and also in contrasting their different cultural uses which is nomadic in the lake region and agricultural in the river region
According to the Vice Chairman of the Tibet Reform and Development Commission, Wang Niandong, the main source of livelihood initially in their region is agriculture and animal husbandry but had been improved into primary and secondary industry which helped them achieve food self sufficient in the recent past.
He disclosed that Tourism which is now dominating the region last year attracted more than twenty million (20) local and international tourist with a revenue of about twenty eight billion (28n) Yuan.
The Deputy Chairman maintained that the infrastructural development in the region were undertaken by the central Chinese government as a way of ensuring that the Tibetan people live a better life in a conducive environment as community housing projects were instituted that helped most farmers to now live in a modern house.
Another project that impressed most of us in our group is the children orphanage home that housed four hundred and ninety (490) children that are now living standard life with access to education as the region has 12 years compulsory education system.
Upon a visit at Potala Palace it was discovered that during summer period about five thousand (5000) Tourists visit there on a daily basis with a view of one yuan for Tibetan and 200 yuan for none Tibetan as the former go there for worship whiles the latter for site seeing.
The Palace is divided into two. One is known as the White Palace mainly used by the Emperor for administrative purpose while the Red Palace was for religious practices and also housed the tombs of some of the Dalai lama’s that were designed with gold.
According to one of the local guards, the Palace presently host a number of monks who always pray and protect the Palace with a total of twenty Chapels and three thousand seven hundred statutes (3,700) inside it, adding that the Palace was put on the World’s Cultural Heritage List by UNESCO in 1994.
One thing that would catch every visitor’s eyes upon visit to the Joking Temple, is the presence of huge number of worshipers outside the Temple and upon entering it you will find thousands of people including old and young women, children fighting their way in and out of the Temple.
Seeing such scene will automatically present the clear picture that the region is dominated by the Buddhism religion, which was said to have originated from India and some part in Central China.
Moving from the City of Lhasa to Nyingchi City in Bayi District within the same Tibet Province took us about 11 hours traveling through mountainous villages where massive road construction is ongoing linking the two Cities.
It is evidently clear that the entire Tibet Autonomous Region is under massive construction as one can see the transformation on the high rise buildings, roads, railway, high speed rails, airports among others.
By Alhaji M. Kamara in Beijing.
Friday July 22, 2016
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