Hmm.
Everest, as we know it, or Qomolangma as the Tibetans know it, has been good to us,
but now it's time for me to head to the heartland of Tibet.
I'm going to take the high road to Lhasa.
The Tibetan Plateau, shielded by the Himalaya from the monsoon rains to the south,
is a virtual desert, nearly three miles above sea level.
We shall cross it to Yushu - the northernmost point of our journey.
Shigatse boasts the country's second biggest monastery, Tashilhunpo -
home to the second most powerful monk in Tibet, the Panchen Lama.
In contrast to the dry hills around, the lush decoration is evidence
that religion is not just important, it's at the heart of Tibetan life.
- It's an amazing palace here. - Is that the biggest monastery in Tibet?
- I suppose Lhasa's got bigger. - Yes.
I visit Tashilhunpo on a cold, bright morning with my Tibetan guide, Migma.
This has belonged to... How can I say? ...Gelugpa order, Gelugpa sect.
There are 800 monks here. New ones seem to be joining all the time.
It's an honour for a family to send their sons to Tashilhunpo.
Monasteries are usually like a college or a university.
The monks can study Tibetan medicine
and philosophy, history, something like that.
Tibetan culture, also astrology.
So a Tibetan master or doctor graduated usually from a monastery.
I see. So the top professional people in Tibet would have been monastery educated.
Exactly. Graduated from a monastery.
Did it make Shigatse very important or was it an important city anyway?
Yes. This city has 500 years old. It is the second biggest city in Tibet.
- Why was it so important? - This is the Panchen Lama's residence.
(PALIN) The Panchen Lama, who's the second spiritual leader.
(MIGMA) There are two spiritual teachers - the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama.
The Dalai Lama is living in Lhasa in central Tibet
and this belongs to western Tibet.
At what age do the boys get sent away to the monks?
- Most of them, six years old. - Six?
- Yes. Six years old. - Are they allowed to go back home?
Er... Just one time a year.
Religion dictates everything, including the colour scheme.
Why is that there when everything else is white? Why is that colour there?
- The red colour? - Yeah.
The red colour is to symbolise the temple. Inside is an important Buddha.
The white colours there is no Buddha, just a dormitory for the monks.
- I see. The temple only would be painted? - Yes.
This Buddha is 80 feet high
and reputedly the biggest gilded copper statue in the world.
It attracts pilgrims from all over Tibet.
In Buddhism you get better karma the more you come here?
- Yes. - And the better your next life will be?
Yes. They hope from the Buddha they get some power or wisdom
and for their next life it's better.
(VIBRATING RING)
Lamps, signifying the light of wisdom and purification, are fed with yak butter.
So this statue is 27 metres high and 11 metres wide.
- It's fantastic. - Made from copper.
So it's very important, the act of pilgrimage, in Tibet still?
Yes. Some pilgrims come every day because the monastery is very close to their town.
Local people come every day.
Pilgrims are kept to two of the staircases.
The middle one can only be used by the Dalai Lama or the Panchen Lama.
This may be his home but, after a disputed succession,
no one knows where the new Panchen Lama is.
The Dalai Lama's candidate mysteriously disappeared
and a rival Chinese candidate is hardly ever seen.
Heading east out of Shigatse, the road leads to Gyantse -
a town which grew rich from the wool trade with India
and remains one of the best preserved of all the old Tibetan cities.
100 years ago, Tibetans gathered on these walls to repel an invasion.
Not by the Chinese, but by the British.
The Viceroy of India, irritated by having a "closed country" so near his northern border,
sent an army in to open it up.
Francis Younghusband crossed the mountains with 10,000 men.
After fierce fighting on the plain below, the fortress fell,
allowing the British to take Gyantse and move on to Lhasa -
puncturing Tibetan pride and ending their isolation.
- Ooh-ah. - Let's sit here.
A tea bar and a ball of string.
This is the old... the markets of Gyantse.
Is there still a wool trade or clothing or anything here?
Today most of the wool is carried to Lhasa, so now we can see no wool.
Just clothes we can buy here.
Yeah. I read an amazing thing in a guide book,
which said that before synthetic materials,
beards for the Santa Clauses in American department stores were made of yak fur.
It doesn't seem to be a particularly big, thriving city.
It's busy here, but the city seems to be quieter now.
Yes. Because from Nepal to Lhasa, the main way is not here.
It's changed after maybe 20 years.
I leave Gyantse with some regret. There's a real sense of history here -
of the days when Tibetans were monks, merchants and warriors.
Tibet is not a cosy country.
The centres of population are few and far between
and separated by hundreds of miles of wild and astonishingly beautiful landscape.
Tibetans have great respect for their surroundings.
Mountains are goddesses and lakes are sacred.
My first sight of Lhasa - once called the Forbidden City -
suggests very little is forbidden any longer.
Chinese communism has created a capitalist paradise
and Lhasa's now about as dark and mysterious as Disneyland.
But all is not lost.
In the heart of the city is one of the most charismatic buildings in the world.
13 storeys high, it looms over Lhasa like a giant Buddha.
Chairman Mao wanted to blow it up and I can see why.
If a nation could be symbolised by a single structure, Tibet was the Potala Palace.
I can remember seeing this extraordinary building in photos in my encyclopedia.
Quite unlike anything else I'd seen - the essence of foreignness.
Of course I never expected to see it because at that time Tibet was closed.
Now I can come here,
but the Dalai Lama, whose palace it was, has gone and it's now just a museum.
The Potala Palace was completed in the 17th century
and no expense was spared to make it a home fit for a God-King.
Before skyscrapers, the Potala Palace was the tallest building in the world.
Everything had to be carried up these endless stairs.
0n the roof, you'll find the most enchanting of all the palace's 1,000 rooms -
the Eastern Sunshine Apartment.
This was the Dalai Lama's bedroom.
From here he could be the first in Lhasa to catch the rays of the morning sun.
If ever there was a place to feel monarch of all you survey, this was surely it.
It's almost half a century since the present Dalai Lama, the 14th,
looked out over his city for the last time.
He'd probably recognise very little of it now.
0nly the heart of the old city has staved off the encircling concrete.
The Barkhor - the market area of old Lhasa -
remains the most important meeting place for Tibetans.
But now they're outnumbered in their own city by Chinese immigrants
and things will never be quite the same again.
During the past 20 years, the Barkor has really changed, completely changed.
That's because, you can see, there are so many... businesses,
all shops here around Barkor.
There are no families living. Just the second floor there are people living.
I see. So there are fewer Tibetan families here, more businesses. Owned by Chinese?
There are Tibetan also. Some Muslim people.
- Oh, right. - Also Han people.
- So the Chinese have put money in here? - Yeah.
The Chinese authorities have failed to curb the Tibetans' devotion to their religion.
Pilgrims still prostrate themselves in front of the Jokhang - the most sacred temple -
or do the "kora" - the traditional walk around it.
Why are so many people here at this particular spot?
This is holiest palace in Tibet.
This temple we call the Jokhang is Buddha's house. That means "Buddha's house".
They say a third of all Tibet's dairy produce once went into the creation of butter lamps.
The Chinese, anxious to drag Tibet into the modern world, banned their use.
Now they've relaxed the rules and butter's back in a big way.
These people who are doing the kora here, they look like they're out of town.
- Have they come from the countryside? - Exactly.
Most of them from the Kham area, eastern part of Tibet,
and at this time the eastern part of Tibet is a nomad's area,
so in winter time there is no more work.
The pilgrim's progress can take many different forms.
Prostration is an important way of gaining merit
and some spend years dragging themselves to Lhasa.
Tell me about the significance of the juniper and those incense burners.
The smoke is next to the sky and the earth,
so the Buddha believes that smoke comes down to earth.
So it makes a route between earth and sky. Right.
This is from Tibetan native religion, not Buddhism.
- That's before Buddhism? - That's Shamanism.
I like the idea of that - you put in some juniper and create this roadway.
Migma and I break our kora at a cafe.
- He is teacher. - Yeah.
This was the haunt of Tsangyang Gyatso, the sixth and naughtiest Dalai Lama,
from whom, a Western traveller noted,
"no girl, married woman or good-looking person of either sex was safe."
He stayed with his girlfriends. He wrote several books of love songs.
- This was his place for romantic trysts. - Exactly.
- Wow. Did he have any children? - No.
- It was platonic. They just read books. - Yeah.
Maybe for his writing he needed to have some idea from girls.
- So he wrote poetry? - Yeah.
Have you read it? What's it like?
Actually, he's very clever and very funny.
- Ah, yes. - The sixth Dalai Lama.
Well, Dalai Lamas don't have girlfriends any more.
The sixth Dalai Lama especially!
Potala Square, a windswept, open space of the sort beloved by the Chinese,
was created to mark the 30th anniversary of the day Tibet ceased to exist
and became instead the Tibet Autonomous Region of China.
30 years in which a deeply conservative, religious society
was rudely forced to confront the modern world.
For an insider's view of these traumatic years,
I've been given permission to talk to Taschi Tsering.
0nce imprisoned by the Chinese, he remained in Tibet
and became the first Professor of English at Lhasa University.
I am at the right place. How do you do, Taschi? I'm very pleased to meet you.
- Thank you. - Honoured to meet you.
When I was in Lhasa... early '50s...
the Chinese Revolutionary Army arrived.
When first they came I was so curious...
shocking and curious.
Then also they started building roads
and establishing some small clinics...
Then at the same time they were propagating all kinds of "isms".
Like feudalism, capitalism, socialism, communism - all these isms.
Which I had never heard of before and made me even more curious.
And I started to think that definitely Tibet -
the Tibetans, their life... bound to be changed.
(NEWSREEL) The peasants of Tibet, who lived like animals in serfdom, have stood up.
The joyful days which they have long dreamed about are here at last. The serfs are now free.
The government issues seeds as interest-free loans.
These are truly the seeds of happiness.
(PALIN) But the seeds bore a bitter fruit.
After the Chinese invasion, the Dalai Lama - then a 16-year-old God-King -
was stripped of his political power
as Mao made no secret of his dislike for religion.
The Dalai Lama met Chairman Mao in Beijing
to discuss how Tibet should be reformed.
It seemed amicable enough for a while, but in 1959 things came to a head.
A Tibetan uprising began and was brutally suppressed.
It was the end to any pretence of Tibetan independence.
The Dalai Lama, facing imprisonment or death if he stayed in Lhasa, fled his palace.
Heavily disguised, he and a few trusted followers
made their escape across the Plateau and through the Himalaya to the safety of India.
The Dalai Lama never returned.
Taschi, being educated in India, was asked to work with him, but he had other ideas.
A lot of Tibetan exiles were staying away from Tibet.
You chose to come back in 1964. Why was that?
I began to think about...
accepting the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party.
And after some time, I was thinking to take the socialist road.
For what?
For coming back to Tibet, to cooperate with them,
to modernise Tibet, to raise the living standards of the Tibetans.
When I came back, I ran into the Cultural Revolution,
and at the end of that I was labelled an American spy
and an advocator of Tibetan independence. OK?
Then I was thrown into prison and, you know...
a few years until Deng Xiaoping - the rise of Deng Xiaoping's power.
So since then, now over 20 years, more than 20 years...
I'm glad that this government, even though it did not trust me,
however, they are not bothering me.
Nor are they bothering the Buddhists. Politically and economically secure,
the Chinese government is now happy to keep Tibet's monasteries open.
This walled garden is in Sera Monastery.
- Wow. - (NOISY HUBBUB)
That is a wonderful sight.
If you want a good argument, you've come to the right place.
Mass debating!
The Buddha said that his word should never be accepted without question,
so the monks developed a verbal martial art - trading propositions instead of punches.
Who's debating what?
- This is debating Buddhism philosophy. - Philosophy, yeah.
Sitting monks usually give the answer... ask the question.
- The sitting monk asks the question. - The standing monk gives the answer.
- Yeah. - So to do this means, "You are wrong."
- Right. - My answer is correct.
So the more points you can make, the better because you demolish this man's argument.
You say, "You're wrong."
In this school of argument, if you get really worked up, you punch yourself.
Yes. JJ is the place, is it, for the end of a long day?
My time in the capital is drawing to a close,
and looking for a last chance to taste the delights of the big city,
Migma and I head for Lhasa's top nightclub.
(ORIENTAL MUSIC AND SINGING)
Beers are bought in slabs of 12.
The audience is treated to Tibetan culture seen through a showbiz filter.
(SPEAKS TIBETAN)
Later on it gets truly weird
and I find myself experiencing profound feelings of déjà vu.
0h, nol 0h, my Godl It's the Eurovision Song Contestl
(POUNDING POP SONG)
Migma tells me she's 19 and studying architecture.
Early in the morning of my final day in Lhasa, I'm up in the hills above the city.
This is Nechung, once the home of the State 0racle -
the third most important monk in Tibet.
He fled to India with the Dalai Lama
and now his monastery, destroyed in the Cultural Revolution, is being restored.
The work is all done by hand - and sometimes foot as well.
(CHANTING)
Here a work team flattens out a clay floor with a sort of restoration line dance.
They even have people here on work experience.
The walls are like libraries, covered in images intended to teach as well as decorate.
It's more than a monastery that's being preserved.
It's a culture which, thanks to Chinese communism,
at one time seemed dangerously close to extinction.
Leaving Lhasa, we pass works that will have profound implications for Tibet -
the foundations of a 700-mile railway across the high Plateau.
From 2008, the year of the Beijing 0lympics,
high-speed trains will, for the first time, connect Lhasa with the Chinese rail network.
"For the benefit," says the poster, "of all the peoples of China."
As one ethnic group, the Han, makes up 91% of all Chinese,
it's clear who'll benefit most from this impressive feat of engineering.
About 100 miles north of Lhasa, amid swirling steam,
I discover a totally unexpected Nirvana.
Oh! Oh, wonderful!
The problem with Tibet is it's a very big place and very difficult to heat
and this is the first time I've been warm in two weeks.
I've had to come to this Olympic-sized swimming pool north of Lhasa,
at about 14,000 feet, to really be warm!
And it's lovely! Who needs clothes when you've got the hot springs? Ah ha ha!
Oh!
Not all the water on the Plateau is as friendly.
These are the icy shores of Namtso Lake -
15,000 feet, 4,700 metres, above sea level.
(M0T0RCYCLE APPR0ACHES)
Namtso, Tibet's largest salt-water lake, is a very cold, very holy, very busy place.
Well, it really says something for the dedication and devotion of Tibetan pilgrims
that here at Namtso Lake on the onset of winter,
when it's really cold and windy out here, that they've all turned out.
Because it's a very important lake,
this is a very important year - the Year of the Sheep - and it's an auspicious year
for people to come to the lake and do the kora - the devotional walk.
There's so many of them, so there must be something in it. I'll join in and see.
Namtso is one of the four sacred lakes of Tibet
and great merit is gained from braving the ferocious elements to come here.
There's one circuit for day trippers,
but the truly dedicated can circuit the lake itself.
That's an 18-day walk.
Having walked with people in this numbing cold,
I found myself puzzled and a little envious of the degree of devotion
that can turn such a remote and unforgiving lake shore into a sanctuary.
(HERDERS WHISTLE)
The only other signs of life around Namtso Lake are the herds of yak,
for whom extreme cold is a perfect environment.
I'd been warned to be wary of yaks.
They look docile but can get dangerously perky.
In return for help with the herding, Ganden, the local cattle baron,
invites me in for a yak snack of butter tea and a slice of dried thigh.
And that luxury of luxuries, a fire.
Yaks, he says, are a man's best friend
and provide him and his family with wool, milk, cheese.
He's a nomad, not a farmer, and life is very hard.
Most of the year they live outside in extreme weather, cold and snow.
Luckily, he tells me, the Communist Party of China helps him overcome these hardships
and he's very grateful.
I think I've just walked into a commercial.
400 miles north-east of Lhasa, summer has arrived on the Plateau
and the yak are fattening themselves up.
Sonam and his brother are moving their herd to make the best of the fresh pasture.
The easy way to do it is on the family motorbike.
Sonam's wife prefers the traditional methods -
a whistle and a clod of earth on the side of the head.
I just pretend I'm a tour guide.
I'm not a natural farm boy but, this being a busy time, I offer them my limited skills.
Nothing seems to be happening.
I'm unqualified for milking of any kind, let alone yak milking.
Come on, then. There you go.
Yes. There you go.
Come on, come on. Just a drop. Just a little drop.
Sonam says I must be firmer with the udders.
Which ones do I? There's so many.
OK. All right? Yeah?
I'm not milking a yak, of course, because a yak is actually the male.
So this is a "dri". A dri is what you milk.
There we are... There we go.
- Soon have enough for a cappuccino! - (SONAM LAUGHS)
He's a bit of an enigma is Sonam.
Does he always wear a suit or is it just 'cause we're here?
The relationship between man and yak seems almost embarrassingly one-sided.
Yaks provide milk, cheese, butter, meat, fuel, fur, rope, skins and transport
and in return they get a bell and a very silly haircut.
Ah, thank you.
It's a bit warmer in here than out there.
Hello. Hello, little ones. I'm Michael. Not that you're interested.
The tent that is their summer home is predictably yak dependent.
It's made from their hair and heated by their droppings.
I've come from the winter pasture to the summer pasture
which is actually where you only spend about three months of the year.
I got a bit of yak-herding practice and milking practice.
This is incredible. This is a yak-hair tent.
Everything you see here - there's cupboards, sideboards, all these big pots -
everything is brought on the back of a yak, isn't it?
And this is where you spend your summer with your family
out on the fields there.
It may look warm but it was quite chilly this morning. I could use this hot tea.
Somehow, Sonam, although you can't speak my language and I can't speak yours,
we somehow know what we're on about.
Eating, sharing food together, children. Children are always the same.
Always one's going like that and the other one's going, "Waah!"
It's the same in England, the same in Tibet. Funny thing that, isn't it?
Who needs phrase books?
Hello. Hello.
I like to think my help can give the family a bit of a breather,
even if I do feel a bit like the au pair.
The whole pace of life sort of changes up here.
Most of the things they do, most of the movements, are fairly leisurely, like this.
Making the cheese.
There's no great rush.
Lots of gossiping goes on, of course, outside.
But those of us who are stuck in the kitchen get into this rather gentle rhythm
and it's awfully pleasant.
This would probably be the major occupation of the day for somebody.
It beats presenting.
(MACHINE WHIRRS)
Oi! I saw that. I saw that.
That's what happens when I leave it. It gets a mind of its own.
You... stop! Cheese, in the bowl. I saw that. And your friend.
All right. Hey! Right over! It'll be in the camera.
It wants to be stirred. OK. All right. I understand your point of view.
You three are the troublemakers. No problems here at all. Oi!
You're a new one. You're a stroppy, difficult one.
I'm not having you in my cheese. So there!
Hello again. Don't look so sad. I've come here to work.
Must be making butter in there.
How does that work? Yeah. No, this is one I haven't done.
Excuse me. Is it just?
Push it down? You show me.
Right down. Yeah. And then up.
Good. A good manly plunge.
I wonder how long you have to do this for. A long time?
An hour? Two hours? She says yes.
At the end of it, it's delicious butter.
I somewhat reluctantly tear myself away from the warm bosom of Sonam's family.
He's agreed to give me a ride to the horse fair in the nearby town of Yushu.
OK.
We don't bother waiting for the bus.
After days on the sparsely populated Plateau,
the metropolis of Yushu comes as a culture shock.
A town springing out of nowhere,
alive and buzzing with shops, restaurants and hotels.
And next door, another town is taking shape.
The horse fair outside Yushu is the biggest gathering on the Tibetan Plateau.
Few people can make a living on the Roof of the World,
but those that do have come here, often from hundreds of miles away, to meet and celebrate.
Nomads bring their tents and their families here
to meet other nomads they'll probably never see for the rest of the year.
The atmosphere is a mixture of home comforts, holiday-camp jollity
and Highland games, with the yaks joining in.
Not always happily.
There are retail opportunities
with an expanding high street of cafes, stalls, businesses and sideshows.
Elaborately decorated tents go up,
creating a bizarre mix of Henley Regatta and the Wild West.
Much of the time is just spent hanging out.
A woman has moved her cafe from Yushu to the fairground.
It's here that I meet Sonam's English-speaking friend, Duker,
from whom I learn more about the secret life of a yak herder.
When he was a teenager, did he come here to meet girls?
For instance!
(TRANSLATES INTO TIBETAN)
Yeah. He met lots of girls.
Did he fall in love with any of these girls or were these just girls he met?
He did fall in love? Did she find the love of her life here?
Yes. She says that is her privacy.
Oh, I see. That's fair enough. Let's talk about politics... Oh, no, no.
(MUSIC OVER P.A.)
The opening ceremony is all about politics.
Local administrators join with members of the People's Liberation Army
to mark the achievements of the Chinese government in opening up the west
and providing a brighter future for the people of this benighted land.
(BAND PLAYS CHINESE NATIONAL ANTHEM)
As the Chinese National Anthem dies away,
a good old socialist drive-past begins,
which could be in Red Square or Tiananmen Square.
Whilst massed tractors and farm vehicles roll by,
the commentary - in Chinese and Tibetan - extols the miracles of modernisation
and the promise of even better days ahead.
(CHILDREN CHANT)
The children seem to be having a ball,
but the discreet presence of authority seems to inhibit some of the older participants.
These are Khampa people -
the only Tibetans to put up any serious resistance to the Chinese "liberation".
I wonder what Sonam makes of all this.
What does he love best about it?
- The horses. - Oh, right.
Yeah. 'Cause of your yaks and all that. Is he a horseman as well?
- Yes. - Does he do the musket? Do you do the firing?
- No, never. - That's dangerous.
- It's a bit dangerous. - He's got a wife and family!
But plenty of people will do it, with impressive results.
But the gathering up of the scarves gives the horsemen a few problems.
OK. Where are we going now?
- We are going to see some coral. - What's?
- Coral. - Coral?
Coral? I know what coral is.
As we both need a break from the fair, Duker takes me shopping in town.
It's motorbike land. Like the Wild West but without horses and motorbikes instead.
- Look at this one. - Oh, right.
Hello. What are these? You wear these, do you?
- Do you wear them? - Yes. It's a necklace.
Right. Like an amulet sort of thing.
For example, this coral, the dark red, is very expensive.
- This is the real "zu". - Yeah.
- And these are? - Yes. It's a zu.
- What's it called? - Zu.
Zu.
If you have a zu touch your body, it can protect you.
Oh, right. How much are they?
- 30,000 yuan. - 30,000 yuan. Wow. So...
Ten to a dollar. That's about $3,000.
More than $3,000.
30,000 yuan divided by ten. That would be $3,000, wouldn't it?
Am I right? I always get this wrong. Much nodding from the financial department.
Can we afford one? No. I thought not. Half?
You should be in a bank. You've got so much money around your neck.
You should have security guys. Maybe they are.
I don't think I want a zu. I wouldn't mind a "zzz" but not a zu.
By now we've caught the attention of the men in hats. It's time to move on.
What sort of things are they buying and selling?
- It's caterpillar fungus. - Caterpillar fungus?
- It's very expensive. - Can we see it?
- It's a very expensive herb medicine. - Oh, right. Can I touch it?
Yeah.
- You see it's an insect, actually. - Yes.
- Yes. There's the head. - And six feet here.
You'll notice some feet.
What is so good? What's this? The caterpillar's tail?
- No. This part is. - What is that?
Grass. So in the ground it's like that one. So it comes out like this.
- Why is it so valuable? - It's medicine. Herb medicine.
- What does it cure? - Everything.
Everything? No wonder it's so good.
Will it cure filming sickness brought on by deep fatigue?
- Yeah, you can... - Only joking.
- Can I have 30's worth? - How much you have?
The caterpillar fungus, or cordyceps sinensis, sets me back a pound a shot.
Still, if it cures everything.
Thank you. Very precious. I'll go and sell them to somebody else now.
(EVIL LAUGHTER)
Let's go now.
Back at the fairground, in the world of parasols, there's still plenty going on.
Stimulated by the scent of burning juniper,
Duker and I investigate one of Tibet's less well-known pastimes - hoop-la.
- One yuan each. Five yuan for six. - OK. Let's have three each. Six.
Every prize is a packet of cigarettes, which for a non-smoker like me is a bit of a bummer.
(DUKER) Go, go, go.
- Oh! - Hey. Do you smoke?
No.
We've found the only tobacco hoop-la.
Is there any sort of luncheon meat or smoked oysters down here?
- Cigarette, cigarette... - Ah, no.
What with this and things like karaoke,
there are a number of outside influences on what is essentially a Tibetan festival,
and I wonder if Duker has problems with this.
Do you think it's a danger that you lose the Tibetan culture,
if people all speak Chinese as well, Tibetan will become less important to people?
Yes, probably, if you do only speak Chinese,
or if Tibetans only speak Chinese and English, then we will lose.
But now we are learning Chinese and Tibetan both,
so, yeah, we are still keeping our culture.
Actually, we're trying.
So the Chinese and Tibetans mix quite happily?
- Happily? You mean harmony? - Yeah. In harmony.
Yes. It's fine now. Really fine.
- Was it difficult to get that... harmony? - Not difficult.
- Was it always like that? - Yeah. It's fine.
For me, I didn't really feel any tension or...
No. It's just getting along well.
So your son in 50 years' time, he will be as Tibetan as you were
and as Tibetan as your father was?
My son, if I have a chance, I would like him to get the best education.
That means he has to learn Tibetan, Chinese and English also
and, if possible, I will send him to the best university in Peking...
- Oxford! - OK. So that's right.
So if he goes off to own a multinational in Shanghai and London, you wouldn't mind?
No. Never mind where he is, if he has a better life, it's fine.
You wouldn't like it if he forgot how to speak Tibetan.
No, he would not, because I will let him have a very deep feeling about Tibetan
when he is in childhood.
- Yeah. Well... - His childhood, yes.
I liked being up on the Plateau. I enjoyed that.
That was much better than being in noisy London.
We can't all have everything we want.
I never thought Tibet would ever remind me of my summer holidays, but it does.
There's a similar atmosphere here to going away to Norfolk and picking a beach hut,
and there were people next door - "Who's coming this year?"
It's that same feeling here, of people letting their hair down for a few days,
and it's not just that it's picnics and tents.
It's also people dressed to the nines, the parades and all that sort of thing.
What I sense here is an extra intensity to the enjoyment
because for eight months of the year this is such a severe life on the Plateau
that when they do get together, they obviously know how to party.
(LIVELY MUSIC)
This is the Yangtze River where it gathers momentum
for the 4,000-mile journey from here to the sea.
This is the farthest north I shall be going on the Tibetan Plateau.
We'll now follow the Yangtze south
until it reaches the eastern edge of the Himalaya.
Next time on "Himalaya", I brave the whirlpools of the Yangtze,
walk the Tiger Leaping Gorge, see what the doctor orders,
learn seduction techniques and join a Chinese hoe-down.
Back in India, I take a train,
show my stomach to a head-hunter,
search for the perfect cup of tea,
see boys playing girls,
watch dancing drummers
and give an elephant a bath.
"Himalaya" - the highest form of entertainment.