Tibetan tour guide offers gift of experience

LHASA－"Do Tibetans ride horses to work? Do you all live in tents?" Dondrup was bombarded by a string of questions during his very first train journey to college back in 2000.

"I will never forget that experience. Lots of people really don't know much about Tibet," the 41-year-old ethnic Tibetan recalls.

After graduating from his college in Chengdu, capital of southwest China's Sichuan province, Dondrup tried a variety of jobs－selling apartments and cars, even opening a small bar.

"In my bar, many guests would come to me and ask about Tibetan history and culture. As a Tibetan myself, I couldn't give them all the answers. It was embarrassing," he says.

That was when Dondrup made up his mind to get his tour-guide certification. "I systematically learned historical and cultural knowledge, as well as Tibetan traditions. As I learned more, I became a more successful tour guide."

At the end of 2015, he made it onto that year's list of "Excellent Chinese Tour Guides", released by the former National Tourism Administration.

"What I wanted to do was to give people a chance to discover Tibetan culture," he says.

However, Dondrup soon realized that being a guide was not enough for him to realize his dream.

Although he had made his presentations as compelling as possible, Dondrup often found that he talked a lot, but tourists remembered little.

"How could I make things more memorable?" He soon hit upon an answer: by creating a hands-on experience.

"I picked some elements of Tibetan culture, and encouraged guests to experience them personally," he explains.

In July 2019, Dondrup opened his Tibetan culture experience center in a four-story building near the renowned Jokhang Temple in Lhasa. With distinctive Tibetan-style decorations, the venue allows guests to wear Tibetan costume, make incense and draw thangka, among other activities.

During the National Day holiday in 2019, things got better, with 20 to 30 daily visits and a maximum of about 50 people. There were also many foreign guests, he says.

The good days did not last long. Early last year, COVID-19 began to rage across the country and beyond. At the end of January 2020, the first and so far only confirmed case was found in Tibet.

For the safety of employees and guests, Dondrup decided to shut down his shop on the same day knowledge of the case was made public. "Although it reopened on April 1 last year, we had no guests at all because there were no tourists around.

"I thought at the time the shop would be gone for good," Dondrup says. "I felt I would soon be defeated by the epidemic, and I was ready to shut it down at any time." He even advised his employees to find other jobs.

Fortunately, China's all-out fight against the virus started to turn the tide.

"After May 2020, there were occasionally one or two guests, it was enough to give me hope. In June, there were even more, thank goodness!"

In the second half of last year, his experience center saw its peak season. There were 50 to 60 visits a day, with a daily maximum of over 100 guests.

Dondrup was relieved. This year, he has moved to improve the customer experience and launched a series of original products. He is looking forward to the annual peach blossom festival in Nyingchi, as the number of tourists to Tibet is expected to surge at that time.

Dondrup's parents named him Nyima Tsering, meaning "the sun and longevity". He says he prefers Dondrup, which means "success in an undertaking".

"When I am old and recall this experience, I can at least say with pride that I have done something that I think is worth it," he says.

Xinhua