buddhism is good for business

The road from Tibet’s main airport into the city of Lhasa passes beside massive images of Shakyamuni Buddha, Tara, Amitabha and Chenrezig that emerge from the rocks as if self-arisen, as indeed Tibetans say they are. Small groups of Chinese Buddhist nuns and lay devotees dressed in grey make deep bows before each image, while other mainland Chinese tourists smoke cigarettes and pose with each other for photos. A few foreign visitors throw khatas up onto the stone. Drivers and tour guides wait patiently for the tourists and pilgrims to finish up before packing them back into the vans and buses that will ferry them into Lhasa. This is the first sign of one major change I will observe during the rest of this trip. In its effort to 'develop' Tibet - read here 'turn into a profit center,' the Chinese government is moving quickly to capitalize on Tibet's potential as a tourist destination. Understanding that a major part of what makes Tibet interesting to visitors is of course Tibetan Buddhism with its monasteries, temples, and the many other marks it has made on the Tibetan visual environment. Buddhism, it seems, is packaged into Tibet as a tourist spot.

A sign of this conceptualization lies just adjacent to the stone images: An amusement park with Buddha-themed entertainment that has been built since my last visit here, in 1997. At the beginning of the trip I did not consider the significance of this, but one month later when I passed the theme park again on my way back to the airport, the symbolism seemed inescapable: The Chinese government’s move to turn Tibet into a Buddha-themed tourist destination is echoed loudly in the rapidly growing tourist industry, that threatens to turn the sacred sites of an entire country into the playground of curiosity seekers with cash to spare.

This eventuality seems distant at the moment, though, and there do seem to be some benefits to the monasteries. To attract tourists to see the charms of a Buddhist Tibet, the government needs to permit and even sponsor renovation and repair of monastic buildings, and perhaps even some new construction. A major renovation effort was underway at Sakya Monastery (see photo.) If only for the sake of the tourist trade, those monasteries need to be filled with people in red robes. For the benefit of tourists, the main debate courtyard at Sera Monastery in Lhasa is surrounded by a paved and elevated sidewalk, ideal for snapping pictures, and afternoon debate is a heavily photographed event. It is impossible to foresee precisely how this tourism drive will shape life of monks and nuns in the long run.

For now, it is clear that Buddhism is very good for business. It remains to be seen whether business will be good for Buddhism.