COVER STORY

Tibetan images

PHOTOGRAPHS: N. RAM

A traditional Tibetan dance in Zhongdian, now known as Shangri-la, in Yunnan Province.

Tibet, like the rest of China, is on a roll. It offers rapid frame alternations of the new and the old, the modern and the traditional in a heady mixture of sensory experiences. Material prosperity, steady population growth, rises in living standards, education and skills training, and in general the process of modernisation, are transforming life, work and mindsets, especially of the young.

While Tibetan Buddhism remains a strong presence in the autonomous region (TAR) and in Tibetan autonomous areas in four provinces, rising China is very much in charge of future Tibet.

A devot senior citizen with her prayer wheel sits in the square front of the Jokhang Monastery in Lhasa.

A scene in front of the Potala Palace.

Inside the Tashihungpo Monastery in the north-western suburbs of Xigaze.

An everyday scene at the foot of the Potala.

Performing Buddhist rituals in the house of a prosperous potter's family inthe Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Yunnan.

Chinese tourists take in breathtaking snapshots of wondrous Tibet.

A peasant troupe provides a taste of Tibetan opera, which is enjoying a revival in Tibet and has a considerable following abroad.

Traditional welcome at a Tibetan opera house.

Master Tibetan potter at work at home.

His daughter, in a lavender top, is in charge of blackware sales at a roadside stall.

The effects of modernisation can be seen everywhere in Lhasa.

Villagers engrossed in a game of wits, near Lhasa.

This peasant household has prospered thanks to hard work and thrift, many hands, government subsidies and a construction boom.

Scenes from a Xigaze kindergarten: Ten years from now Tibet will be a region of middling prosperity, with a well-educated and relatively young population.

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