Lost horizons…
sclayton May 19th, 2009
Shangri-La, and the park nearby, illustrated an interesting link between the preservation of ecological and cultural diversity. Both are governmental priorities and supported by governmental funds. Given that the traditional cultures live more lightly on the land than the new Western practices, the two diversities are compatible as well. And our impressions so far suggest that people from the minority cultures feel more closely tied to their landscapes and locations than the majority people do — the landscape is part of what defines them. This is not to endorse the simplistic view that minority groups always live in harmony with the earth. I was just intrigued by the way different types of diversity were linked by state policies here, in part because both types of diversity enhance the revenue from tourism
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