SOCIETY

<正>Divine ArtistryA ceremony is held to unveil a giant painting of the Buddha during the annual traditional Shoton Festival at Sera Monastery in Lhasa,capital of southwest China’s Tibet Autonomous Region.More than 200,000 Buddhists and other believers on August 14 thronged Lhasa for the start of the Shoton Festival,also known as the Yogurt Banquet Festival,a week-long event held since the 11th century.This year’s festival was held from August 14 to 20.     

A Homecoming

正I first met Dorje Tseten on his daily circumambulation,the ritual of circling a Tibetan Buddhist holy site and praying,along Lingkhor,the sacred path in Lhasa,capital of Tibet Autonomous Region.While he no longer has the agility of his youth,the 84 year old insists on performing his prayer wheel ritual every day.On completion he takes the bus home."I have the card for senior citizens that entitles me to free bus travel,"he said.Dorje Tseten returned to Lhasa from a decades-long exile in 1999.He left     

BEING DISCHARGED

The only patient infected with the novel coronavirus in Tibet Autonomous Region,southwest China,accepts a bouquet of flowers from the doctor in charge of his case after his recovery at the Third People's Hospital in Lhasa on February 12.The 34-year-old patient,a tourist from Suizhou,Hubei Province in central China,arrived in Lhasa on January 24 for a pre-booked tour,and was confirmed to have the virus soon after.He was discharged from the hospital after 18 days of treatment.As of February 14,over 6,000 infected patients in China had recovered.     

Vice President Boa Thiemele of Cote dlvoke''''s National Assembly and His Wife Visit Ezhou

Mr. Boa Thiemele, tall in stature with a dark complexion, is an old friend of the Chinese people. He was the first Cote d'Ivoire's ambassador to China after the two countries established formal diplomatic rela-tions in 1985. He worked in China for seven years, throwing all his energy into the work of promoting cooperation and development in the political, economic     

Champa Trinley, Blind Massager

Champa Trinley was born of a peasant's family in Lhasa, capital of Tibet, in 1954. Healthy and lovely, the baby brought great joy to the family. But when he was six years old, a serious disease made him blind in both eyes. Despite seeing nothing, Champa learned to do farm work. Every day he worked in the fields like everyone else. Aside from completing what work was assigned him by the production team, he joined the local youth shock brigade and, as a member of the brigade, vied with oth-     

9th Edgar Snow Symposium Held in Beijing

Chinese people's old friend Edgar Snow lived in China most of the time from 1928 to1941. He travelled a great partof China, knew the sufferings ofthe Chinese people for whom heshowed deep sympathy. He wasthe first foreign journalist who wentto the Soviet areas in Northern     

Buddhism in China and Its Origin

Buddhism originated in India in the 6th-5th century B.C., based on the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama of the Sakyas.As a prince of a tribe in today's southern part of Nepal, he grew tired of luxury and material goods and a world where there was old age, sickness and death, and went to search for "enlightenment:".One evening he was sitting under a banyan tree and fell into a deep meditation during which he achieved" enlightenment." He was given the title Buddha (the awakened or enlightened) and was also known as Sakyamuni (the wise man of the Sakya tribe). He died in 480 B.C.     

Hancunhe: A Mode Suburban Village

How a poor village on the outskirts of Beijing becomes the prototype for a new and wealthy "modern countryside" Li Kai, a farmer in his 70s, lives in Hancunhe Village in Fangshan District of Beijing suburbs. He takes Icharge of guarding his old house near the 330-square-meter villa he now lives in and receives 260 yuan ($37.90) a month for     

Tudeng Kezhu:Professor from“Roof of the World”

It was in March 2003. I had the honor to meet a Tibetan young man coming from the snow-capped plateau. Slim and tall, he looked delicate and easy in manners. Wearing a pair of glasses, his eyes were bright and shining. Born in a pasture in the Qamdo area of Tibet, he speaks fluent Han language, revealing that he received higher education in the Han-inhabited area. He is Tudeng Kezhu, now serving as the deputy dean and associate professor of the Economics Department of Tibet University in Lhasa and came to Beijing for the first session of the 10th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).     

Lives on the Snowy Plateau

正Title:Living on the Roof of the World(II)Authors:Xu Chaoqing,Li Lin et al.Price:RMB 78Published by New World Press,Beijing,2013The 1,300-year-old Jokhang Monastery in Lhasa is bathed in morning sunshine.Rainbow hued prayer banners l utter on towering gilded l agpoles as smoke spirals from incense burners.Drolma Lhamo,in her late 70s,i ngers her prayer beads as she makes her morning devotions,just as she has done for decades.Drolma Lhamo lives deep in the labyrinthine alleys of Barkhor Street.Born in a traditional courtyard residence there,she moved     

''''HAND IT'''' TO HANDAN!

AN old Chinese fable tells us about a young traveling man who found himself one day walking in the streets of Han-dan. He was out of money and since everyone viewed him as a stranger, he     

My Father and His Old-fashioned British Camera

Can you believe it that an old Britain cam era changed a peasant's life? He is my fa ther Li Tianbing. For his doing well in tak ing pictures, the villagers call him "Master Tianbing".My father is 68 years old now, still living in the corner of Makeng Hua'an county, the mountain areas of Southern Fujian Province. He is famous there. And he is famous for his old-fashined British camera. Never look down upon this camera! When my father was young, he and his folks were so poor that no one knew camera.     

Festival Begins in Tibet

A giant Tangka,a religious silk embroidery or painting of Buddha,is unfolded by monks on the hill slope near Drepung Monastery on the outskirts of Lhasa,capital city of southwest China’s Tibet Autonomous Region,starting the 2011 Shoton Festival,which lasts from August 29 to September 4.Shoton Festival,one of the most popular traditional festivals in Tibet,is celebrated annually from the end of the sixth month to the beginning of the seventh month according to the Tibetan calendar.It attracts tens of thousands of Buddhists and tourists each year.During the weeklong festival,people gather to drink yogurt,watch Tibetan operas,and pay homage to giant paintings of Buddha.Originating from the 11th century,the festival is now a national intangible cultural heritage.     

Vegetable Growing:Road to Wealth for Tibetan Farmer

Ah Nu, who lives on the outskirts of Lhasa, the capital of Tibet Autonomous Region, is not an ordinary farmer. He is the first person in Tibet who has been growing vegetables with greenhouse techniques. Ah Nu has become well off thanks to vegetables. His greenhouse techniques have also benefitedhis fellow villagers. A lanky young man with a dark complexion, Ah Nu has bright eyes, giving people the unmistakable impression of being extremely resourceful. And a smile never leaves his face whe…     

Tibetan New Year Celebration at Labrang Monastery

LABRANG Monastery is a place hidden high in the hills southwest of Lanzhou in Gansu Province. Nestling at an altitude of almost 3000 meters amid surrounding mountains, and lying on the northern banks of the Daxia River, Labrang is centermost in the small …     

Rejoicing in Yushu Meadow

SAIKANG Monastery lies at the foot of the holy Gadojuewu Mountain in Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Qinghai Province. It is site of the Living Buddha enthronement ceremony, when a reincarnated Living Buddha takes over from the previous incarnation. It took more than ten hours on the mountain road from Xining to reach Yushu, and after climbing the Bayan Har Mountains in snow and wind, the Saikang Monastery finally came into view through the distant morning mist.     

Art and Money：Selling Out in Xiaozhou

XIAOZHOU Village on the southern outskirts of Guangzhou is a place of boundless opportunity - at least for Liu Jiusheng and Xie Guozheng. Liu opened his guqin （ancient zither） workshop in the village in 2007. He loves the guqin and is a skilled player. Once he bought an old one and disassembled it, finding its construction not as complicated as he had imagined. At that moment, he was struck by the impulse to make his own zithers of superb quality, and hired 26-year-old carpenter Xie to help him realize the dream.     

One Man＇s Junk Viewing garbage as a misplaced resource and a business opportunity

Anarrow path skirts the green belt along the Jingmi Canal and ends in a big courtyard one kilometer from the Summer Palace, a famous tourist attraction in Beijing. It seems to be a different world from what we find in other parts of the urban district. This courtyard is a junkyard. Various types of scrap are piled in rows scores of meters long： old fumiture, old garments, old electric appliances, scrap paper, scrap metals,     

Lhasa Snapshots

1 SCOOPING LHASA: The first group of foreign journalists to enter Tibet since rioting rocked Lhasa on March 14 arrives at the airport on March 26.The State Council Information Office made arrangements for a three- day trip for the reporters.The group consisted of people from 19 media organizations from various countries 2 CALM AFTER THE STORM: A father takes his son for a walk in the square In front of the Potala Palace in Lhasa on March 26.Although social order had been restored after rioting in Lhasa on March 14,the once overcrowded square remained largely deserted     

Artistic Impressions of Hutong Charm

KUANG Han came to Beijing in 1989, and immediately fell in love with its hutong. He spent his spare time wandering about and sketching Beijing's boulevards and alley- ways until he had amassed a 3,000-pic- ture portfolio. It helped him to draw accurately the gates and houses of old Beijing, as well as the street life that was and still is the cultural heart of this 3,000-year-old city. Kuang's works portray ordinary life and its everyday kindnesses and are imbued with a strong sense of his-…