Oz documentary makers describe Lhasa as Lhasa Vegas

Lalit Mohan

Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, July 10

Australian documentary makers Mark Gould and Charles Dodgson, who arrived here after a three-month journey of the Tibetan plateau, have described Lhasa, the capital city of Tibet, as Lhasa Vegas.

Mark, while interacting with mediapersons in the Tibetan library here today, said he had visited Lhasa about a decade ago. "At that time my guide described it as a city of 1 lakh Chinese, 50,000 Tibetans and 20,000 sex workers that were there for Chinese soldiers. However, within a span of 10 years, the population and infrastructure in the city has grown by 500 per cent. The Patola palace of the Dalai Lama that used to cover the skyline of Lhasa is no more the most prominent building," said Mark.

Charles said most monasteries in Tibet had been renovated by the Chinese government with heavy investments and converted into tourist destinations. "However, the numbers of monks in these monasteries has reduced to a great extent. Travelling through the Tibetan landscape, one feels that the Tibetan plateau is being converted into one big Buddhism theme park," said Charles.

Mark said development was evident over the areas of Tibet they visited. Broad roads and bridges were connecting even small towns.

Both Mark and Charles, however, said no restriction was laid on them shooting the footage from their small cameras. "We have shot a 72-hour footage and will now ponder on how to present it," they said.