Tourism, Buddhism, Socialism: in Search of "Tibet Development Model"

This paper elaborates on the recent trends in social and economic development of China’s Tibet in the context of the two opposing narratives, created and promoted by the government of PRC and Central Tibet Administration. While the former stresses out the economic and social achievements of the central government during the last seventy years, the latter tries to play them down by insisting that Tibetans need only religious freedoms. As it turns out, however, the compromise between these two narratives is reachable thanks to recent rise of tourism in Tibet. From one side, it creates wealth and promotes economic development. From another side, this development becomes possible only in case religious freedoms exist. Drawing on examples from other regions of China, where such sort of cultural tourism has been developing for a certain period of time, this paper warns that the above scenario has its own pitfalls. Selling religious tradition can cause its secularization that in turn leads to marginalization of local people. It is suggested that by strictly adhering to the principles of Chinese that implies priority of the common interests over the individual ones can prevent this scenario. This paper concludes that combination of tourism, Buddhism and socialism can create a new, unique Tibet development model.

Tibet, religious tourism, Buddhism, development model, socio-economic development