There are so many Tibetan boutiques in Beijing [Photo/www/google.com]
Tibet fever, which started spreading throughout the west more than a decade ago, is finally catching on across the mainland, where people are embracing just about everything Tibetan.
Walk anywhere in Beijing and you will be confronted with the phenomenon. On Saturday afternoon, half a dozen Tibetans squat on a street in the Rear Lake area of Beijing, multicoloured Tibetan bracelets, necklaces and earrings lined up neatly on brightly coloured pieces of cloth on the ground.
Just around the corner, shoppers wander around a small Tibetan boutique stocked with Tibetan thangkas, statues, clothing, jewellery and even battery-operated prayer wheels. In the back room, various products are available, including Lhasa Beer, yak butter tea, barley wine and dried yak beef.
Across the street, a tattoo artist pulls out his digital camera and displays a photo of a Chinese customer sporting a large tattoo of Tara, the most popular Tibetan Buddhist deity, on his shoulder. He says Tibetan script is also popular with some young people.
At the Sanlian Bookstore, half a dozen books with Tibetan titles are piled on tables near the entrance, with names, such as Tibet and the Tibetan People and Riding the Rails to Tibet. In a DVD shop a few doors away, a number of DVDs produced over the past few years with Tibetan themes are on sale.
