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  Closer to heaven: Tibet offers escape from the world with natural, spiritual charm  
 

SPREADING TIBET FANTASY

Near the embassy zone in the eastern Beijing downtown, stylishly dressed foreigners and young Chinese dine at the Tibetan restaurant Makye Ame. Tangka--traditional Buddhist paintings--decorate the walls, and bronze prayer wheels add to the distinctive ambiance. Servers bring tsampa--a Tibetan staple of roasted barley flour--and butter tea to enthusiastic patrons.

Makye Ame has two branches in Beijing, one in Kunming, capital of southwest China's Yunnan province, and its flagship restaurant in a little yellow house on Lhasa's Barkhor Street.

Tsering Wangqing, president of Makye Ame Tibetan Restaurant and Bar, says that since the first restaurant opened in 1998, things have gone smoothly thanks to a business model that incorporates Tibetan culture.

"In the next two or three years, we are going to build a culture center in Lhasa, which has a restaurant and boutique hotel as well as a gallery, small theatre and music studio for traditional arts," he says.

He attributes the business' successful expansion to increasing interest in Tibet and Tibetan culture.

He certainly has grounds for his confidence. At Beijing's leading bookstores, the anthology of poems by Tsangyang Gyatso, the legendary sixth Dalai Lama from the late 17th century, is among the bestsellers. And at least six versions of his biography have been on the market.

The first book of "The Tibet Code," a fictional work that explores secret Tibetan history, achieved great success in 2008 and nine books have followed.

"Even as a Tibetan, I cannot succinctly define Tibet's charm," Tsering Wangqing says.

Duche prefers to avoid describing Tibet as romantic escape.

"In Lhasa, you have the same problems you have in other places. You meet people, good and bad, much like other places," he says. "For residents here, Lhasa has a complex character that can't be summarized in one or two sentences."

Duche discounts the idea of a sacred or troubled land, which some of his visiting friends have.

Prof. Du Yongbin, a researcher with the China Tibetology Research Center, regards the Tibet fantasy in China and abroad as a consequence of Postmoderism, where people have realized that reason and science cannot solve all the world's problems. He says rapid industrialization and urbanization have created a void. "People have realized something is lost in their lives which Tibet, traditional and religious, still has," Du says. Enditem

Source: Xinhua

 
 
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