Thorn Tree travel forum

1

The area your daughter lives in is called Dechen (Diqing in Chinese) Tibet Autonomous Prefecture. Though it is not in the Tibet Autonomous Region, it is very much in Tibet. If you have any specific questions about Tibetan culture, feel free to send me a private message.

Need more travel information for Tibet? Check these out…

The Land of Snows

Life on the Tibetan Plateau

2

Judy,

Lonely planet, Brandt, and Google should be a start.

See if there is a Tibetan restaurant nearby. I'm from CT and for a few months we had a Tibetan store and restaurant about 20 minutes away. It was worth a trip every week to try momos, po cha and try a few basic words. The effort of learning a few words, also a tape and book from something like snowlion website, Learning Basic Tibetan, I think, has paid off huge in getting along with the very friendly Tibetans and enriching the experience..

Paul

3

You can check out the Footprints guide to Tibet, it has an extensive information on Tibetan culture (especially the religion) and also covers the region that you're about to visit.

Drung Valley: China Side | Drung Valley: Burma Side | China: the Nu Jiang Gorge | China: Yunnan Province | China: Guizhou Province | China: Guangxi Province | Macau | Vietnam: Ha Giang | Vietnam: Bac Ha and Sa Pa | Vietnam: from Saigon to Hanoi | Vietnam: Phu Quoc Island and the Mekong Delta | Cambodia | Bangkok: The Thonburi Canals

4

Wikipedia and wikitravel provide a much better introduction to Tibet than this forum.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tibet
http://wikitravel.org/en/Tibet

Come back here for specific questions.

Shangri-La is between two regions, one inhabited by Tibetans, the other by the Han (Chinese), so the Tibetans in Shangri-La physically resemble more the Han than the Tibetans in Tibet.

Han Girl

5

What sort of cultural insight you need? You mean the local custom or history aspect?

If you're more into religion, try reading "The Tibetan Book of the Dead", it's a readable material (well... unlike many others) and it's indeed inspiring.

For local custom (like "3 sips 1 drink"), the Lonely Planet or Footprint should be enough.

Extensive FAQ about travel situation and permit restrictions in Tibet
Spinn Cafe , Lhasa, Tibet - we are based in Lhasa
Spinning in Tibet (ISBN: 9789881805966), published in Hong Kong.

6

I am grateful to all who've responded so well and with good places I can do my research.
I can't ask real specific questions as yet, because it's now a blank piece of paper for me. The paper will get filled in with my insights and questions as we travel and I soak everything in. Anyway, that's what has occurred for me in other places of the world I've been so richly blessed to travel to.
Again, thank you for responding.