About the book
The Tibetans in Lhasa do not eat or catch fish, but the Han Chinese population does. The Tibetans instead go to the market to buy the fish to set them free. The whole fishing economy however has gotten a bit out of hand with the Tibetans now by far being the best customers at the fish market. The Han Chinese cater for them by keeping the fish in large basins and selling big bags with water and added oxygen so the fish can be kept alive during the transport back to the river.
This is one of the stories in the book and a nice metaphor of many other developments in Tibet.
In the book 'Freeing the Fish, Progress and Impermanence in modern day Tibet' I show the changes that took place in Tibet in the last 10 years: The rapidly expanding cities and the city life, the new growing monasteries, the life of the nomads and the farmers in a changing environment (climate, mines, dams and resettlements).
The book is 21*29 cm with a hard cover, 240 pages with 150 photos of which 50 spreads and 20 background stories. Beautifully designed by -SYB-.
In addition to the trade edition there is a special numbered edition of 100 with a choice from 4 prints, for 100 Euro or all 4 print for 250 Euro.
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Progress and Impermanence in modern-day Tibet
The traditional farming, nomadic and monastic society that Tibet was and to some extend still is, is ever more rapidly changing.
New infrastructure, railways, roads and airports are being built, bringing an influx of people and economic activity, speeding up urbanisation and increasing activities around mining and hydro electric dams to fulfil increased demand for raw materials and power.
This together with the climate change and the increased government regulations changes the life of the nomads and farmers rapidly, forcing people to change their old ways and in many instances to resettle into newly build villages with neatly lined up small concrete houses where there is little to do. The pure nomadic life-style is in many areas disappearing rapidly and the agriculture is up scaled from the traditional subsistence farming. Some traditions will be lost forever but the Tibetan culture is also surprisingly resilient and the Tibetans find many ways to adjust to the new situations and to mix the traditional with the new.
With the money flowing in, new residential areas sprawl and cities and monasteries are renewed. The cities do not only grow because the Tibetans move there but also because of the influx of Han Chinese who bring with them even more economic activity and industrial activities. Like the larger towns in the Tibetan areas in the provinces of Sichuan and Qinghai, Lhasa expands many kilometres each year, looking more and more like any large fast-growing Chinese city.
The book focuses on these changes that took place in Tibet in last decade and wants to provide an insight into this complex society.