Kangmar means "Red House"in Tibetan.

Here's a land rich in cultural and tourism resources. Its stone-carving tradition has been passed down for centuries; the Naining Guoxie dance has been performed for over 1,200 years without interruption; and the Langdong Manor, after six hundred years of wind and rain, still preserves vivid murals and an ancient courtyard layout.

How can this millennia-old cultural vein be brought to life while also increasing the income of local residents? Kangmar County in Xigaze,southwest China’s Xizang Autonomous Region, has produced its own answer.

In recent years, Kangmar County has anchored itself to the goals of building a "culturally strong county" and a "renowned county for cultural tourism." Leveraging its local advantages, it has deeply explored its distinctive resources and cultural connotations, using culture to shape tourism and tourism to showcase culture. Step by step, it has forged a win-win path where cultural heritage preservation and income growth reinforce each other.

A carving knife opens a new direction: Big stories carved in stones

Kangmar's stone-carving culture has endured for centuries. Research shows that the earliest extant stone carvings in the area are cliff sculptures dating from the late Yuan to early Ming dynasties.

At the junction of National Highway 219 and National Highway 562 in Kangmar town stands a distinctive hotel named "Yangpashi" (Tibetan for "slate stone"). Entering it feels like stepping into an open-air stone-carving museum: the corridors, halls, and guestroom decorations are all works of Kangnuo Mani stone carving, while the wall and floor materials also come from local slate.

The hotel was invested and built by Guoji Quba, a representative inheritor of the Kangnuo Mani Stone Carving, which is listed as an regional-level intangible cultural heritage. Having been drawn to stone since childhood, he took up the carving knife from his forebears and has made the craft his lifelong mission.

"All the stone carvings in the hotel were designed and carved by ourselves, showcasing elements of Tibetan clothing and scenery," he said proudly. "My only aim is to let more people learn about Xizang, understand Xizang, and fall in love with Xizang through this art."

Though stones are silent, the craftsman's heart speaks. From 2005 to 2014, Guoji Quba resolutely left a stable job to return home and set up a small stone-processing plant. He earned his first pot of capital by supplying slate for the restoration of an ancient monastery, and then founded Kangnuo Mani Stone Industry Co., Ltd., integrating slate mining, processing, and sales. His stone-carving career has advanced steadily.

"We must uphold tradition, also innovate," he said. "We cannot lose the skills handed down by our ancestors, yet sticking rigidly to the old ways will not take us far either."

To broaden development space and boost production capacity, Guoji Quba traveled to Fujian, Zhejiang, Shandong and other provinces to study and purchase equipment, repeatedly adjusting to local slate materials and exploring new techniques.

In 2016, the enterprise achieved a major breakthrough: computer precision engraving was skillfully integrated with hand carving—machines rough out the contours, while artisans add fine details and colors by hand. This innovation shortened the production cycle for a single piece from two months to half a month.

Guoji Quba then moved beyond a single-carving model and adopted a graded use of stone: fine-quality materials go to artistic creation, the rest is processed into building materials, and waste stone dust is supplied to cement plants. This whole-chain approach has also explored solutions to the survival challenges facing intangible cultural heritage.

"The enterprise's growth could not have happened without the support and good policiesof the Communist Party of China. So I have taken the initiative to shoulder social responsibility and continue to help more fellow villagers increase their incomes through hard work," Guoji Quba said. At present, his company has 48 regular employees. Since 2014, it has provided stable employment for 48 registered impoverished households, with per capita annual income rising by 100,000 yuan(RMB), while also offering flexible jobs to more than 100 local people.

Forty years of collecting treasures: One man and a cultural garden

In Nenying Township, a Tibetan-style two-story building stands quietly. Above the entrance, a Chinese-Tibetan bilingual sign reads "Tibetan Traditional Culture Garden."

This cultural garden was meticulously created by Phurjung, a retired teacher from the village. Pushing open the door, visitors enter a storehouse of memories: 16 exhibition halls on two floors. Old and new contrasts, the history of the Naining resistance against the British, the Naining Guoxie dance—each old object and photograph silently tells stories of bygone days.

Phurjung said that during festivals and holidays, teachers, students, and Party and government cadres come to visit and study. He then becomes a volunteer docent, using the collection as teaching material to tell every visitor about the past and folk culture. Since opening, the garden has received more than 1,600 visitors from within and beyond the region.

Phurjung also holds another title: representative inheritor of the Naining Guoxie dance, a regional-level intangible cultural heritage.

Naining Guoxie—a folk song-and-dance tradition with a history of over 1,200 years—once fell into difficulty when elderly practitioners passed away and young people showed little interest. Seeing this, Phurjung took it upon himself to shoulder the responsibility of transmission, visiting old folk artists, compiling lyrics, music, and dance steps, and doing all he could to save this folk heritage.

"I don't want intangible cultural heritage to slowly fade away in the passage of time," he said plainly, though the weight of his words was heavy.

The path of preservation has never been solitary. With strong support from the Xizang Autonomous Regional Party committee and the People's Government, the Nenying Cultural Festival was held from 2004 to 2006, bringing the Naining Guoxie into the public eye. In 2007, it was successfully included in the second batch of the autonomous region's intangible cultural heritage list.

To ensure the intangible heritage is passed on from generation to generation, Kangmar County has steadily promoted "intangible heritage in schools," making Nenying Township Primary School a main base. "Since 2007, I have taught at the school every Wednesday, teaching children to sing and dance by hand. Over more than twenty years, I have trained more than 400 young inheritors," Phurjung said. He also told reporters that in the past, performers had to prepare their own costumes and props for out-of-town shows. In 2019, the Kangmar County's Party Committee and government provided full performance kits for everyone, removing all worries.

When culture thrives, villages thrive; when the cultural vein flourishes, cultural tourism flourishes.

Today, the township has more than 30 core inheritors who earn stable incomes from regular rehearsals and performances. This ancient song-and-dance form frequently appears at major scenic spots, becoming a bright cultural calling card for Kangmar.

In addition, relying on its profound cultural resources, Nenying Township uses intangible heritage as a link to promote integrated cultural tourism development. Local cultural tourism activities have grown increasingly popular, attracting tourists from afar and also enabling villagers to increase income through homestays and other businesses, achieving steady growth in distinctive cultural tourism formats.

Six hundred years of rebirth: Ancient villages and buildings "alive" in the present

In Kangmar, there is an old saying: "Once you pass the GangbaLaMountain, no stone-built house can compare with the Langdong Manor."

As the core landmark of Nambar Village in Sapugang Township, this ancient structure has weathered six centuries. Its layout remains well preserved, and it is both a regional-level key cultural relic protection site and a patriotic education base that carries the memory of exchanges and integration among all ethnic groups.

Over the years, Sapugang Township has followed the principle of "bringing cultural relics to life," continuously unlocking new functions for the Langdong Manor—a coin museum, a Tsa-tsa and stone carving museum, and a folk wedding experience hall have all opened one after another, making the silent history feel tangible.

"We have created distinctive experience projects using the manor as a setting and regularly hold small-scale traditional Tibetan weddings," said Dorje, deputy director of the Kangmar County Culture and Tourism Bureau. "The venue houses a full collection of traditional Tibetan costumes, allowing visitors to immerse themselves in a traditional Tibetan wedding and also view an exhibition of Tibetan traditional attire."

In 2019, Nambar Village was successfully selected as one of the fifth batch of Traditional Chinese Villages, injecting even stronger momentum into the village's development.

Riding this wave, Nambar Village has undergone a comprehensive upgrade, building a leisure "linka", a self-drive campsite, and a tourist service center. Fifteen Tibetan-style residential houses have been renovated to improve living conditions and transformed into distinctive homestays. "We did not tear down or rebuild on a large scale; instead, we preserved the ancient village texture and let the old houses truly ‘live' in the present," said Wang Qianchao, Party Secretary of Sapugang Township.

Many villagers have transformed into tourism practitioners. One of them is 63-year-old Laba Dondrup.

In 2023, Laba Dondrup seized the opportunity to convert his home into a homestay. That same year, the county and township organized skills training for homestay families in hospitality and environmental hygiene. "At first, we didn't understand—did we really need special training to make a bed?" he recalled. "But after systematic study, I realized that only with good service will guests come back. Now, I can earn an extra 30,000 yuan(RMB) a year."

In 2025, a supermarket also opened in the village, further enriching the tourism ecosystem. All cultural tourism projects in the village have developed in a coordinated manner, with per capita disposable income exceeding 20,000 yuan(RMB) that year. The villagers have truly come to rely on tourism for their livelihoods.

Cultural tourism resources are blossoming across multiple sitesin Kangmar County. The Marbo Tso site, as an important prehistoric cultural relic, has received great attention from local authorities in terms of excavation, protection, and activation; work is steadily advancing toward the creation of a national archaeological site park to ensure the living transmission of ancient civilization. As a national-level key cultural relic protection unit and an regional-level patriotic education base, Nenying Qude Monastery bears the glorious history of resistance against the British, and its red spirit continues to thrive.

Culture is transmitted, monuments are vibrant, and industries have a promising future. Dorje told reporters that as diverse cultural tourism resources continue to exert their charm, the "Kangmar County '15th Five-Year Plan' Cultural Tourism Integration Development Plan" is being expedited, ushering in a new phase of growth for the local cultural tourism industry. Building on this new starting point, Kangmar County will continue to focus on the goal of becoming a "renowned county for cultural tourism," relying on the "one core, two zones" cultural tourism and wellness layout, and making good use of the three themes—preservation, activation, and development—so that the highland's cultural vein endures, rural development gains confidence, and the people's lives grow ever more prosperous.

Reporter: Tenzin Namse, Hu Rongguo, Yang Ziyan, Wang Li, Tseji, Tenzin Karmar

Translator: Zheng Yujie, Liu Fang

Review: Phurbu Tsering, Drakpa Wangchen