A case for the healthy development of Tibetan culture

In 2006, I turned an old Tibetan courtyard into a nine-room boutique hotel with a restaurant and a teahouse, in an effort to spark the revival of heritage architecture in Lhasa, capital of the Tibetan autonomous region. Within five years I opened four heritage hotels in Tibet as part of the Shambhala Serai group.

I firmly believe that, alongside language, architecture is a keystone of cultural preservation and identity. Architecture represents an ethnic group's dialogue with its own environment. So in all restorations I undertook in Tibet over the years, only local craftspeople were involved. We did everything in the traditional manner, trying to keep as much of the original buildings intact, using old materials to rebuild new sections that were damaged or had collapsed. Even for paint, pigments were grounded from stone and stored in large metal barrels.

Craftsmanship in Tibet is still taught orally, from father to son, master to apprentice. In the late afternoon, the workers used to take rest. Sitting in a circle, they sang and drank chang, Tibetan liquor. Those were joyous moments filled with laughter. Then they picked up their tools and continued working until dark, singing the whole time.