BY Ashis Chakrabarti

    At 76, Luosang has seen it all! Tibet old and new. In fact, he hasn't just seen it; he has played his part in the dramatic makeover of the mystical land of romantic imagination.

    He sits in a first-floor room of his traditional Tibetan style house in Lhasa, his back to a wall adorning several images of Buddha and Buddhist paintings.

    In the street below there are endless streams of pilgrims making the rounds of Jokhang, the holiest of the Buddhist shrines in all of Tibet, whose origin dates back to the seventh century. Only a small distance away looms the massive structure of the Potala Palace rising to the top of a hill.

    Luosang's story, like modern Tibet's, begins in 1959, when the 14th Dalai Lama left the Potala on his great escape to India, making Tibet an international cause.

    Luosang began working for the Lhasa residents' committee in 1959 as a volunteer. It was a hard life maintaining a family of four children.

    He is retired now and lives with the family of his youngest son, a carpenter by trade. His other son and two daughters live elsewhere. The eldest daughter has also retired from her government job, while the two other children - a son and a daughter - also have regular jobs.

    Luosang is happy with the freedoms that Tibetans now enjoy, freedoms to choose their professions and live their own lives.

    "It was hard to imagine such freedoms in the old days when most Tibetans lived as serfs and life was what the serf-owners, who were also the monastic leaders, made of it for the people," explained Luosang.

    But what about religious and political freedoms? He does not talk of the post-1951 communist takeover of Tibet or the Cultural Revolution clampdown on religion.

    "The government's policy gives the people the freedom to either believe or disbelieve in religion," he said.

    A government official sitting next to Luosang adds: "The scene at the Jokhang says it all. Religious freedom is there for all to see."

    Luosang would like the Dalai Lama to come back, but only as a religious leader.

    "The government and the people will welcome him only if he gives up his separatist campaign," claimed Luosang.

    As for political reform, "It's reflected in the people's freedom to elect or be elected as members of the People's Congress (the state and national level parliaments)."

    Partyspeak, official propaganda, or a reality check on today's Tibet? The answer depends on what picture of Tibet one carries in one's mind. There is little doubt Luosang has been a communist party cadre. Obviously, he has had little sympathy for the Tibet campaigners who see the old world as a Shangri-La the Reds rose from hell to destroy.

    No doubt Luosang's story skips some crucial facts, particularly the present-day restrictions. It says nothing of the communist party's and the government's control of religion through the so-called democratic management committees of the monasteries, the government's religious affairs bureau, the "political education campaigns" of the monks and sundry other ways.

    But then such restrictions are not unique to Tibet. The official policy that acts tough on "anti-national" and "separatist" activity is as valid elsewhere in China.

    What is undeniable, though, is the march of the development engine. It has now gained momentum since the government initiated the western development program in 2003 to accelerate the economic growth of backward areas like Tibet.

    Even if one goes only by an overview of Lhasa's leap into modernity, with its wide roads, high-rise official and residential blocks and other facilities,there is no denying the common Tibetan now lives a better economic life.

    To say the development projects benefit only the Chinese settlers in Tibet seems simply untrue. To say also the development is confined only to big towns of Tibet would also be untrue. The evidence lies in big highways and roads that cross high mountains and broad rivers that had remained un-crossed for centuries.

    And, the development drive is all set to get a new impetus this September when Lhasa celebrates the 40th anniversary of the founding of the Tibet Autonomous Region.