Lhasa's suburbs are developed in agriculture. A number of vegetables and meat production centers have been set up. As soon as you take the suburban road from the airport to the city you notice long stretches of green houses where vegetables like tomatoes, chillies, cabbage, cucumber and turnips are growing. These green houses covered with plastic sheets over bamboo structures are interspersed with orchards of apple, peach, pear and walnut. Heads of yak, sheep and goats can be seen grazing on the meadows by the side of the Lhasa river.

    The villages are few and far between and resemble the villages in India especially in the Ladakh and the Spiti areas. The houses are built of stone and surrounded by fluttering prayer flags and small white-washed stupas. Huge heaps of cow dung cakes dot the green fields as the dung is an important fuel for the villagers. Here and there one can see women clad in pants or long gowns grazing their cattle or working in their fields.

    The population is scarce and out of a total of four lakh people only about 1.5 lakh are living in the city. For this reason there is no crowding or traffic jams on the streets of Lhasa.

    On the six lane roads separate provisions have been made for rickshaws and pedestrians which flow unhindered.

    Apart from the Tibetan people who take up 87 percent of the population of Lhasa, Han, Hui, and some 30 nationalities also live here.

    Lhasa has more than 200 cities known for their cultural relics and more than 20 of them have already been opened to tourists. Work is underway to open 3 more sites to the public. Main tourist destinations include the Potala palace, Jokhang monastery, Ramoche and the Sera monasteries, the Norbulingka. Cute little rickshaws will carry you to the Potala or the Jokhang.

    Barkhor Area: The glittering Barkhor street is the place where religion and commerce meet. The huge area through which a broad street runs just in front of the Jokhang monastery is always buzzing with activity. The huge quadrangular space at the entrance of the monastery is the best place to be at all times of the day. Here one can observe the men and women offering oil lamps to Buddha and burning incense. Monks and nuns circambulate the monastery with prayer wheel in hand and chanting Buddhist mantras.

    Devotees kiss the ground and prostrate themselves. Just outside the square in the lanes and bylanes of the Barkhor Street bejeweled Tibetan women sell antique jewelley, statues of Buddhist deities and also of Chairman Mao. CDs of India films are very popular with the Tibetans and almost everyone know Shahrukh Khan, Priety Zinta and Kajol. Dance numbers of Urmila Matondkar are also very popular and one can see the famous actress gyrating to loud music on the TV sets in the Barkhor Bazar. The best gift to buy are stone bead necklaces made by Tibetan women in their homes.

    Lhasa River Front

    The Lhasa river front can be compared to the famous Bundh in Shanghai on the river Huang Po. The backdrop is formed by the high mountains and snow clad peaks surrounding the city. The beautiful river front stretches for miles on the outskirts of the Lhasa city. In the glow of the evening sun young coupes stroll and hand in hand along the river. Some just sit by the side of the cobbled street enjoying a quiet sunrise over Lhasa. Far away bouts can be seen carrying sand from the river bank.

    No Mini-Lhasa in Dharamsala:

    Many Indians happily describe Leh [in Ladakh] and Dharamsala [in Himachal Pradesh] as the "mini-Lhasa" of India. Apart from the fact that Tibetans form a large part of the population in these towns there is little else by way of material development that can make these towns eligible as "mini-Lhasa". A visitor to Dharamsala will at once notice the deplorable conditions in which the Tibetans eke out a living in the filthy and narrow back lanes of the township. Amid heaps of garbage and bursting pipelines Tibetan women sell momos and other Tibetan delicacies. The resthouses for Tibetan refugees in the dirty bylanes are teeming with men, women and children. I happened to go inside a refugee shelter not far away from the Namgyal monastery. The bathrooms were stinking and the rest halls were crowded with charpoys.  

    Just outside the Main temple which was to be the venue of the meeting to be addressed by the Dalai Lama, a sewer line had burst in the monks quarters and sewage flowed on the rear pathway to the Temple office spreading a lot of stink. The Temple area is congested mainly due to crowding by too many big and small hotels around the monastery. Plastics are strewn all over the township and stray cattle can be found all over the place munching at the waste thrown outside the eateries. However this is the shameful story of most of the Indian towns.

    Monasteries crumbling in Ladakh:

    I also happened to be in Ladakh in May 2005 and had a taste of the poor condition of road. Even the westerly Leh-Kargil road on which I was traveling upto Lamayuru was not only narrow but also pot-holed and dusty. The only mobile phone service that worked in Leh town was Cell One, while the suburbs had no service.

    Even the important monasteries like the Lamayuru, the Alchi, the Hemis and the Spituk on the Leh-Manali road showed little or no upkeep. Rare and beautiful paintings were being destroyed in the harsh climate of Ladakh and little was being done to preserve them. The reason clearly is that very little funds are available to the monasteries in India for their upkeep despite tall promises by the government to preserve them for tourism.

    No Comparison with Lhasa:

    At least for those who have visited Lhasa recently and have seen the pace of development here will not commit the folly of comparison. The capital city of Lhasa is clean, well spread out and has well swept six-lane roads. On either sides of the road stand beautiful and fancy lamp-posts that illuminate the streets with high powered bulbs. Even the suburbs are well connected through land and mobile phones. Not one but many mobile phone services are available throughout the long highways connecting the autonomous region with other provinces of China.

    The Chinese government is also spending millions of yuan on the restoration of the monasteries and historical monuments. On the Potalta palace alone, the Chinese government has sent about 200 million yuan to strengthen the foundation. The Norbunlingka or the Summer Palace of the Dalai Lama is in for an intensive restoration work currently underway. Similarly, restoration work is also in progress at the Ramoche monastery which belongs to the seventh century A D.

    In several monasteries that I visited, the Dalai Lama's throne occupies a prominent position. The throne lies vacant. In the bazaar area and in some monasteries, the Tibetans, on spotting an Indian, enquire about the present Dalai Lama XIV [now living in India] and whether or not he has seen him. Dharamsala and Ladakh are in no way qualified to be termed as Mini-Lhasa but for the fact that the Dalai Lama is ensconced at McLeodgang while the people miss him in Tibet.