Written by Laurence Brahm - Published by Hongkong Culture on 02/01/2008

Jokhang Monastery, Tibet’s most sacred pilgrimage site is for Buddhists what Mecca is for Muslims. Inside yak butter candles burn dim, sending a natural radiant glow, illuminating the Jowa image of Sakyamuni the first Buddha. Hundreds of Tibetans prostrate at the door outside.

Amidst incense fragrant sanctity a Chinese tour guide blathers away to a group following his yellow flag in language clearly offensive to pilgrims prostrating, “Do you see that Buddha, the one everyone is bowing before. It is antique, made of real gold. I said REAL gold! Can you imagine how much it is worth? Can you see all the jewels encrusted in it? They are real too – not fake! So just imagine how much all of this is worth!”

Such insensitive tourism has plagued China, ruining some of the most magnificent, pristine natural environments, eroding delicate ancient cultures. But such problems are not new to China alone. Many of America’s natural vistas and indigenous cultures have faced similar obliteration through globalization of crass commercialization. It has even deteriorated many vacation escapes in Asia, causing travelers to seek escape from these places as well.

On the other hand, sensitive cultural travel -- often called heritage or eco-tourism -- can serve to preserve, sustain and evolve local ethnicity. Such alternative destination travel approach can provide both fulfilling vacation experiences and exchanges of values between cultures. Whether for jetsetters or backpackers, the search for this experience in its many forms is increasingly becoming a trend in Asia.

My own experience developing the Red Capital Club and Residence concept as part of this movement, evolved from a driving concern to preserve Beijing’s unique architectural courtyard house heritage. While the Beijing municipal government embarked on a concentrated policy of cultural self-destruction by bulldozing all of the buildings which defined the rich heritage of this ancient capital, we sought to preserve neighborhoods through grass roots efforts, acquiring and restoring courtyard houses calling craftsmen back from retirement and putting them to work with a sense of identity. Through the preservation of courtyards on three separate streets and extensive lobbying efforts an entire neighborhood was preserved, possibly the only historic one left in China’s capital, whose architecture today now looks like a bad mock-up of Las Vegas.

We extended the concept to a natural mountain reserve along the Great Wall outside Beijing, originally slated for flooding and development by local authorities. Using the preservation model of architectural space being kept at minimum in relation to nature, a barely visible traditional design village was created tucked into the mountainside, preserving ancient wood and stonework, with comfort of modern amenities. Staffed by ethnic Tibetans working under our own affirmative action program Red Capital Ranch at the Great Wall (an intentionally cheeky name) is intended to serve as Beijing’s first eco-tourism lodge. Through this project vast tracts of open natural mountain and Great Wall have been protected from damage unwarranted by local insensitive abrasive approaches to tourism.

In 2003, when filming documentaries in ethnic regions of western China, Tibet Governor Xiangba Pingcuo, invited me to share experiences. I used the opportunity to lobby Lhasa municipality to preserve the city’s old historic quarter as a foundation step toward developing culturally sensitive destination travel. Knowing action speaks stronger than words, in 2005 we purchased two heritage buildings and in 2006 restored them reviving an entire neighborhood, setting example of what can be done with care and attention to local culture and heritage. Only Tibetan craftsmen and women were engaged in the restoration process assuring authenticity of preservation. All lanterns, furnishings, pillow cases, bed spreads and ceramic dining ware were made by families living in the old quarter of Lhasa making the effort an integrated community project focused on cultural preservation and sustainability.

Through restoring and opening House of Shambhala boutique heritage hotel in Lhasa we established a micro-model of sustainable cultural preservation, founding a social enterprise to spread both these approaches and their underlying ideals. Today House of Shambhala serves as flagship for Shambhala, a social enterprise dedicated to action for ethnic diversity and cultural sustainable development.

With the Shambhala restorations serving as platform, we launched a series of micro-equity enterprises ranging from Tibetan Jewelry Revival (most on the Lhasa market is imported from Nepal or India), Save the Tibetan Tiger Rug commune (most tiger rugs sold in Lhasa are synthetic made in Beijing or Shanghai -- we use natural wool and dyes reviving the craft among village women), Tibet Children’s Initiative (where handicapped women produce children’s puppets and dolls), Mala Bead Breakfast Club (nomad women and nuns designing high fashion prayer beads) among other projects. Micro-equity differs from micro-credit in that we invest instead of lend, becoming ourselves stakeholders in the business which must be connected to cultural preservation through evolution of a sustainable commercial social enterprise. Emphasis is upon empowering marginalized women and handicapped with their own sense of self pride, identity and accomplishment.

Moreover, without sustainable economic foundations, culture cannot survive and evolve and will instead go into a museum when mass corporate tourism run by national or multinational operators takes over. This is the kind of globalization of insensitive commercialism phenomena we wish to avoid and even try to reverse through enterprise efforts.

Even our spas at House of Shambhala and Red Capital Ranch use only natural medicinal oils either made by Tibetan handicapped or Nepalese NGOs working with mountain communities. Soothing incense is lit also made from Tibetan herbal medicines produced by Tibetan handicapped. So even when guests indulge they are helping somebody. We are supporting a program of Tibetan yoga revival emphasizing putting meditation back into “yoga” which is a lot more than just stretching. Reviving holistic approaches to living are core principles of our travel concept and lifestyle outlook. Like meditation, these ideas can be taken wherever you go, and are not limited only to the time spent on vacation.

From Shambhala base at House of Shambhala, we have established a rural school providing free Montessori education to over a hundred impoverished children, medical clinics in monasteries where monks and nuns are trained as paramedics and mobile medical clinics reaching out to nomads in remote highland areas. One of our themes is empowering monks and nuns by establishing medical clinics within monasteries, allowing sustainable income to the monastery which traditionally serves a community function both as psychological support and provider of traditional Tibetan medicine. For skeptical Chinese authorities we can point to the monastery as community center and provider, not only limited to serving its religious function.

Increasingly we have guests who wish to not only visit our projects, in addition to Tibet’s historic and religious sites, but moreover to volunteer time and energy in helping us either as professionals – in the case of doctors or teachers giving first hand training -- or in raisings funds to support and expand such outreach efforts. Many are now offering their vacation time to help others through our different programs.

More and more travelers are rethinking the notion of what is a good vacation. Following the 2004 tsunami crisis in Southeast and South Asia many volunteered their time to help with rescue efforts and re-building villages. Many are finding time spent helping others is more satisfactory than playing golf – which wastes precious water.

It is our intention to develop at least three more centers over the next four years across Tibet each built on the concept of locally integrated heritage restoration or eco-tourism, offering exploration of local culture and nature as part of the experience with opportunity to outreach through connected education and medical programs serving villages and nomads in the region.

Shambhala action initiatives support alternative approaches to development. Programs in Tibet serve as collective models of what can be achieved in diverse ethnic regions both within China and in other countries facing dilemmas of cultural identity during economic transition. Small is beautiful and often more effective than large scale economic growth models based on theories, derived in isolation from local realities. We believe in solving concrete problems, at the grass roots level, working with actual people and the conditions they must face, and are uninterested in textbook formulas. We have found a little effort with resources focused in the right place, can dramatically change lives for better. So this is where we put our effort.

Moreover, the building blocks for sustainable development lie in the cultures of the peoples concerned. They have the right to determine the direction of their own economic development and cultural identity. Representative political institutions should be developed on these foundations. If not, they too cannot be sustainable.

Shambhala is a social enterprise committed to promoting and supporting initiatives for ethnic diversity and cultural sustainable development. For more information go to www.shambhala-action.org

Laurence Brahm is a global activist, international mediator, political columnist and author. He is the leading advocate of a fresh development paradigm - The Himalayan Consensus - an innovative approach to development.

Back to Top