Many of you may have seen the movies Himalaya and The Salt Men of Tibet. I like them, too. But as a Tibetan, I also see them as misrepresentions of real Tibet, for which I cannot help speaking up. 

Himalaya also known as Himalaya - l'enfance d'un chef and as Caravan, is a 1999 Nepalese movie directed by Eric Valli and nominated as the Best Foreign Film at the 72nd Academy Awards. It is a story of Nepalese villagers in the Himalayas who carried rock salt from the high plateau down to the lowlands to trade for grain.

Although the story happened in Nepal, it is actually an annual event on the other side of the Himalaya - Tibet, southwest of China. Pure and aboriginal as the scenery is, the village is almost secluded without any contact with the modern civilization, just like the Shangri-la. However, I have to say that this is primitive cultural scenery, a sheer human product manipulated by modern Western filmmakers with the most advanced technology.

As a matter of fact, Tibet is a rather blurred term in English between Tibet of China and ethnic Tibetans of its neighboring country - Nepal.

However, the whole area inhabited by ethnic Tibetans can never be enclosed to the outside world in its culture. Instead, it has undergone cultural interactions and coexistence with other cultures in the world to a certain extent. With the globalization, it is even more impossible for the Tibetan culture to be enclosed to itself.