Paradise discovered

There are few recent travelogues which have been written with an infectious sense of humour and feel for adventure as The “Other” Shangri-la by Shivaji Das. Shangri-la was the name given to a mythical utopia, nestling in the Himalayan mountains, in the popular novel by the same name authored by James Hilton in the 1930s. Yunnan province was first off the mark in “rediscovering” Shangri-la in its own Tibetan borderlands. The original name of the locality was Zhongdian county but was renamed Shangri-la in 2001. The competing Shangri-la in Sichuan is located in the Yading Nature Reserve which is the destination covered in the present travelogue.  

The book is an engaging narrative which combines some lyrical descriptions of the breathtakingly beautiful Alpine region that lies astride the Chinese Sichuan and Tibet regions with an empathetic commentary on both the Tibetan inhabitants and the hordes of young Han Chinese tourists visiting these fabled lands. Shivaji Das undertook this journey with his wife Yolanda Yu, affectionately called Lobo, who smoothed their passage by serving as translator, guide and occasional disciplinarian. Their itinerary took them from Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan to the towns of Kangding, Tagong and Litang.

The last named, reputed to be the highest town in the world, would serve as the base for visits to the “Other Shangri-la”, the Yading Nature Reserve. This is one of the most picturesque regions of China, framed by snow-capped mountains, turquoise lakes and alpine vegetation, once remote and forbidding, but now in danger of being trampled and degraded by mass tourism from the overcrowded cities of China. The once distant villages are now being reincarnated as haphazardly built towns, full of cheap and glitzy hotels and guest houses, fronted by the inevitable and colourful neon lights. This would be familiar to us in India. In both countries there is a growing sense that in the contestation between so-called development and preservation of the frail ecology of our countries, the denouement is depressingly apparent.

In the second part of their journey, Shivaji and Lobo pay visits to Sertar and Larung to catch a glimpse of Tibetan monastery culture that still survives in these nooks and crannies of China, finally ending up at Danba, famed, as the author claims, “for its beautiful women and tall medieval towers”.

The 'Other' Shangri-La: Journeys through the Sino-Tibetan frontier in Sichuan 

Author: Shivaji Das

Publisher: Konark Publishers

Pages: 200

Price: Rs 299

 

While the descriptions of the region’s natural beauty are absorbing, it is the numerous encounters the couple have with a truly fascinating and memorable cast of characters that brings the narrative alive. 
 

The stage is set when they have their ears cleaned by a traditional Chinese ear cleaner in a tea house located in a Chengdu public park, followed by having Shivaji’s palm and Lobo’s forehead read by a frail old lady. These are quaint remnants of a China fast becoming a distant memory, overwhelmed by the headlong rush towards a hedonistic modernity that makes few allowances for such eccentricities. The Tibetan characters described in the book, in particular the daredevil bus drivers on treacherous mountain roads, the Tibetan nomad family in their canvas tent and the gaggle of giggling young monks at the monastery, engaging in a contest of making strange faces at each other, all these reflect a more colourful and endearing diversity that one rarely associates with contemporary China  and its pretensions to cultural  homogeneity. 

I particularly enjoyed the chapter titled “The Valley of Beauties”, where the mountain village of Danba, populated by the ethnic Qiang people, was coincidentally hosting its annual Danba Beauty Festival during the couple’s visit. The women of Danba have been famed as some of the most beautiful in China and this, of course, has been cleverly used for tourism promotion, in the same manner as the legend of Shangri-la has been. The beauty contest itself had the flavour of its more western version, with its emphasis on colourful costumes and knowledge of local culture. But Danbu was also interesting for the casual and uninhibited romance between the local taxi driver, Dawa, who ferried Shivaji and Lobo around town, and his girlfriend, both being married and having children. Clearly the couple had managed to escape the rigours of the country’s social credit system, but may be not for long.

There is a constant under-current of tension and mutual disdain between Han and Tibetan that becomes clear from the pages of the book, but there is, on occasion, a grudging fellowship. A Han interlocutor sees Tibetan Buddhism as a path of redemption from Chinese embrace of unmitigated materialism, just as the Tibetan counterpart grudgingly acknowledges the benefits of modernism that has followed in the wake of Chinese overlordship. Tibetan culture, its language and other-world spirituality are beginning to attract younger Chinese but this may well be a passing fad. Or could there be some prospect of mutual accommodation and understanding that Shivaji refers to in his Epilogue? Somehow I do not share his optimism, guarded though it is.

The reviewer is a former foreign secretary and a senior fellow, CPR