Overseas guests attend forum in Lhasa

Participants in the Forum on the Development of Tibet visit the Samye Monastery in the Tibet autonomous region on Tuesday. Tentsen Shinden / Tibet Daily

The Samye Monastery in the Tibet autonomous region, which is usually filled with pilgrims and tourists, welcomed many overseas guests on Tuesday.

The monastery, the first Buddhist one built in Tibet, hosted participants in the five-day Forum on the Development of Tibet, which opened on Monday in Lhasa. The visit formed one of their field trips.

The forum offers face-to-face exchanges for Tibetan officials and foreign advisers, according to the State Council Information Office, which is hosting the event with the regional government.

Foreign advisers can share details of how their countries have taken a sustainable development path, the office said.

Sixty-four foreign experts and scholars from more than 30 countries and regions are attending the forum and will give suggestions on Tibet's development.

The forum is being held for the fifth time, and it is the second time it has been staged in Tibet. The first three were held in Vienna, Rome and Athens in 2007, 2009 and 2011.

The fourth forum was held in Tibet in 2014. Agreement was reached among participants from 33 countries and regions that development of selected industries, improving people's livelihoods, and protecting the environment and cultural diversity are vital to Tibet's sustainable development.

On Monday and Tuesday, the overseas participants also visited Jokhang Temple, Barkhor Bazaar, two Tibetan villages, and inspected forestry protection measures.

Leonard van der Kuijp, a Tibetologist at Harvard University, who first visited Tibet in 1982, said he has noticed that painting and renovation work has improved in rebuilding many areas.

It is always a question of how you preserve the old with the new, he said, adding that in rebuilding and renovation of monasteries, the local governments have done a very good job.

He also said many Tibetan books have been published and can be found in Lhasa, Chengdu, Lanzhou and Xining.

Transportation services have improved, he added. While it took him six hours to travel from downtown Lhasa to Gonggar Airport in 1982, now it takes only one hour.