More performers than ever before will feature in this year's Shoton Festival, which begins next Tuesday in Tibet.

Hotels have also been built to cater for the surging inflow of tourists since the second phase of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway from Goldmud to Lhasa started operation in July.

Tourist numbers soared to 390,000 in one month, a jump of 50 per cent over the same period last year. Foreign visitors accounted for 9.2 per cent.

Although most foreign tourists came from Europe and the Americas, an increasing number of Japanese, South Korean and Indian visitors have visited the region in the past few years.

The Shoton Festival is traditionally a major attraction for the region. Lamas with the Drepung Monastery, which is located to the northwest of downtown Lhasa, will carry their huge ancient tangka painting of Qamba Buddha out of the Coqen Hall for an annual display on the nearby Gebeiwoze Mountain.

Tens of thousands of pilgrims will rush to offer white hada for the Buddha while the lamas chant sutras and play bugles for about two hours before the tangka is carried back again for next year's display. In the following week, the major activity is to watch the Tibetan Opera, which will be presented by a number of famous operatic troupes this year.

Yak racing and horsemanship display will also be on display.

The Shoton, which means sour milk banquet in Tibetan, was formed after 1642, when the Gandain Phodrang (Paradise Palace) of the Drepung Monastery became the political, religious and cultural centre of Tibet. Tens of thousands of people rushed there each June 30 of the Tibetan calendar to give sour milk to lamas and ask for blessings. The Tibetan Opera troupes and wild yak dancing troupes all came to perform.

Tibet Autonomous Region's Tourism Bureau vice-director Tanor said that the local government is considering cancelling the procedure of requiring foreign visitors to fill in a "Verification Form for Visiting Tibet" by the National Holiday on October 1.

Since late 2002, visitors from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan have been free of this procedure. But foreign visitors who plan to enter Tibet must still fill in this form.

(China Daily August 17, 2006)