A folk artist stages a Tibetan opera performance near the Potala Palace in Lhasa, southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region, June 11, 2024. A five-day Tibetan opera show kicked off here on June 9. (Photo: Xinhua)

Featuring assorted events relating to the indigenous culture of Southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region, the 2nd Xizang Culture and Art Festival will open in the city of Lhasa on Friday with the goal of promoting the region's cultural tourism.  

The gala is a melting pot of events covering fields like traditional Tibetan opera, stage plays, calligraphy and art exhibitions as well as singing and dancing competitions that engage the region's professional and amateur artists. 

Highlighted programs include an orchestra performance titled Himalaya. The show will open the fair on Friday. Another performance called Green Hada is also stellar. It depicts the modern theme of how the construction of ecological civilization is being carried out in the region through the cannon of traditional Tibetan opera. 

Song Weiping, a cultural policy expert, told the Global Times that shows such as these can "mirror not only the region's ethnic cultural legacies, but also its developing modernity." 

"Art fairs like this one are a barrier-less platform to update people about the image and cultural beliefs of China's modern Xizang. Through online social media platforms, these on-site activities can engage a broader audience," Song emphasized. 

Other than solely focusing on "art," the 2nd Xizang Culture and Art Festival sees the fair as a strategy for promoting the region's cultural tourism.

Including folk dances and singing performances, several events will be held close to iconic scenic spots like Lake Namtso and the Norbulinka Palace, which is an immovable cultural heritage first built in the 1840s. 

"Including the fair's 'art + tourism' combo, the region's intangible cultural heritage, natural scenery and culinary traditions have all been integrated into the local touristic sector in recent years," Zhu Xun, a marketing campaigner in the cultural tourist industry, told the Global Times. 

In 2023, Xizang's tourist sector harvested a total of 65.1 billion yuan ($8.9 billion) in revenue. This figure was the result of the all-round development of local cultural facilities such as a newly established national-level cultural industrial park and two tourist cluster areas that were established for the "night economy."   

"Traditional Tibetan culture and the local creative cultural industry is the future of Xizang's tourism growth," Zhu told the Global Times. 

The upcoming 2nd Xizang Culture and Art Festival will run for a month. Other than engaging audiences on site, the event has also designed an online platform called "Cultural Xizang" that allows one to register and also watch livestreams of the fair's various performances. 

In 2022, the 1st Xizang Culture and Art Festival was the first autonomous region-level culture and art festival approved by the regional authorities since the region's peaceful liberation 71 years ago.