Singing and dancing in the Gyantse County. (Photo provided by the Gyantse County)

Gyantse County has national-level intangible cultural heritage history which has 605-years of  history. (Photo provided by the Gyantse County)

The Tibetan Ancient Red Town: The traditional festival “Dama” in Gyantse was being solemnly celebrated. During the festival, the 1st Red River Valley Cultural Tourism Development Forum was opened at the local place. 11 experts in the areas of culture, tourism and economy circles together discussed about issues such as cultural preservation and development as well as tourist resource exploitation in Gyantse.

Gyantse has the name in Tibetan language of “Jiekarzi” meaning “victorious peak,  and the top of prince of Dharma’s palace.” It is one of the 3rd batch historical-cultural towns which were declared by the State Council. The religious architecture in the local area reflect the heroic spirit of daring to struggle against brute force and safeguarding the land of the Tibetan people, which gained for Gyantse the honorable title as the historical witness of “heroic town” – The Zongshan Anti- British Relics. 

Wang Gaoan, the Executive Deputy Secretary of the Gyantse County Party Committee, introduced that following the return of traditional culture, the intangible cultural heritage which is centered on the folk culture has become a very valuable tourist resource. The county will put more effort into the preservation of cultural heritage and the natural environment, therein fully utilizing the abundant and unique cultural tourist resources in Gyantse, which makes it possible to establish an experimental, ecological, friendly and harmonious system for the tourist industry.

Ning Xu, an assistant researcher for the Tibet University Economic and Cultural Research Center said that, “Gyantse is an important cultural and economic town in the history of Tibet, the area is to the north of Shigatse, connected to Lhasa in the east and furthermore it is also an important hub connecting to Yadong county in the south.

Xu Ning pointed out in the process of establishment of Tibet as a worldwide tourism destination and the establishment of the Himalaya economic belt and with new opportunities and a new policy climate, Gyantse needs to go one step further to better excavate its cultural and historical resources and rely on culture to develop tourism.

Prof. Labazeren from Tibet University used to be a middle school teacher in Gyantse. During the opening ceremony of the Dama Festival, he was moved to see his students together with performers of Tibetan opera take the stage. He said “ young people making innovations in the process of passing culture from the past down will definitely bring momentum to the development of Gyantse.

He also said that Gyantse county will be hosting the Red River Valley Cultural Tourism Development Forum, and they will take this opportunity to search together for new ways to develop cultural and tourist resources in all counties of Tibet.

During the forum, all kinds of specialists also visited the Zijin Wetland Park, Jiarijiao Old Street, and also saw the anti-British epic drama Gyantse Footprint performed.