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"I have traveled to many places in the world, and I have crossed the Yunnan-Tibet Line 14 times in the past two years, and I have never seen anything more beautiful than my hometown." At a homestay summit in Beijing at the end of January, Baima Dorji once again expressed his feelings for his hometown, and he can't remember how many times he made similar statements in his speeches. For nearly three decades, he has been doing one thing, to let the Chinese people and the world know about his hometown and Tibetan culture, whether he is a documentary filmmaker or a boutique hotel founder.
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His hometown is Shangri-La, a legendary hideaway
"CCTV is difficult to achieve the ideal, I returned to my hometown to make a tourism platform to achieve."
In 2001, Zhongdian County, the capital of Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Yunnan, was renamed "Shangri-La County". It was also in this year that the CCTV Overseas Center documentary director Baima Dorji officially opened the Songzan Green Valley Hotel built on his homestead in a small village called Kena in Shangri-La.
Songzanlin Temple
"I had the idea of opening a boutique hotel in 1998. The main reason is that for a long time, mainlanders have not known much about the Tibetan people and Tibetan culture, and I have always wanted to build a platform to promote understanding from the outside world. After coming to CCTV in 1993, Baima made at least one documentary about her hometown every year, including "Portrait of the Mountain", a documentary she raised money to make in 1998 reflecting the traditional mountain villages in Tibetan areas of Yunnan, and was invited to participate in the Cannes Television Festival. But he still has a feeling of inadequacy, "I find it difficult to achieve my ideals on the CCTV platform, so can I go back to my hometown to make a platform."
It was then that people knew about Shangri-La because of James Hilton's Vanishing Horizon, and the name Shangri-La fell in my hometown, and tourism was slowly driven. ”
It was on a trip to Cannes, France, that Baima came into contact with a foreign boutique hotel, "a small building, especially cultured." I wanted to make some similar boutique hotels, string them together, and show traditional and cultural things to tourists. ”
This is a very bold and advanced planning, when there was no concept of boutique hotels and homestays in China, the inns were basically low-end accommodation products for backpackers, and the naked town, which was regarded as the originator of Moganshan Yangjiale, would not open until 2007, 6 years later.
From today's point of view, Songzan Green Valley is a full-fledged homestay. Baima demolished the two yards on her homestead and single-handedly took care of all the architectural and decoration designs. "Men who grew up in the countryside probably have a talent for building houses. When I was a child, one or two families in the village built new houses every year, and we played on the construction site, and the whole process gradually became familiar.
In addition, filmmakers, especially those who do documentaries, have strong structural skills, and the ability of abstract thinking to transform image thinking is very strong. With these two foundations, there is also the confidence of design. There are no construction drawings, only architectural drawings, this amateur "architect" "self-written and self-directed", spent 60,000 yuan to make more than 20 rooms of Songzan Green Valley.
Old craftsmen are "raised" in order to pass on traditional things
Songtsam Hotel has a lot of old Tibetan furniture and handicrafts, which is a collection of Baima for many years, dating back to around 1998. At that time, the couple bought their first house in Beijing, and in order to buy two old cabinets, Baima came to Panjiayuan.
"I know there's a shop in the corner with old Tibetan cabinets, but there aren't many things in the store, and the owner said there were two big warehouses in the suburbs, so he took me there. When I opened the door, I was frightened, full of old Tibetan furniture, door panels, and entrances. I put a note with my name on it, and originally I only wanted to buy two cabinets, one large and one small, but there were more than seventy of them. At that time, I didn't have so much money, nor did I have such a big place, so I painstakingly reduced it, and it was really impossible to reduce it to fifty or so. The owner was nice and promised me to pay a third of the money up front and store my things with him. I went home with two cupboards, and when I got home, I didn't dare to tell my wife that she must have thought I was crazy. ”
Since then, the owner has a new product will call Baima to go shopping, before and after bought more than 130 pieces, all put in the hotel. But after 2003, the old furniture can no longer be found, and Baima feels the preciousness of the old craftsmanship and the old craftsman. He consciously retained old craftsmen and encouraged them to bring apprentices.
"The big carpenter who was doing Green Valley was a particularly famous local craftsman, and he took his two sons to help me build the house, the old man died, and the two young people are still with me." Situ Fu, the founder of Moganshan Homestay "French Mountain Residence", introduced a lot of carpentry in Nantong, Jiangsu province to Baima, "Since 2006, I have had Jiangsu workers, at least more than 30 people, at most more than 60 people. When I don't build a hotel, I let them make furniture, I don't sell it, I hoard it myself, I have to let them have work. ”
Benzilan wooden bowl
And copperwork. The most characteristic of Songzan Hotel is the bathroom, the countertop, bathtub is copper-clad, and the washbasin is knocked out of pure copper. "I met the copperworker in 2006, when he didn't have a job, he was doing reliefs in Dali. I said you still really do traditional things, and now he's been on my site. ”
In 2014, the Songzan Lhasa store was about to start, but Baima was always dissatisfied with the process of the wall. "The architecture in Lhasa has undergone some changes 130 years ago, and the stone of the wall can be made more regular. But I wanted the texture of the Potala Palace and the Minzhulin Temple earlier, made of natural stone pieces, but no one would. "One day, a friend took him to the Potala Palace and accidentally found that the newly repaired horse pen used the traditional masonry method," they called it brocade masonry. "Baima made a smooth appointment to repair the Potala Palace, Norbulingka's big carpentry and stonemaking, and invited these two retired old craftsmen to the site of Songtsen." Until now, I have been paying them wages, and they said that they could not receive them when they did not work, and then the two sides compromised, and when there was no work to do it, they would receive half of it. ”
Baima was anxious that the craftsmen were getting older, "the youngest is also 48." I encouraged them to bring apprentices, carpenters and copperworkers to bring out some, masonry is not yet good, too bitter no one wants to do it. I had to hurry, and I told them in particular that I would bring some young people with me in March, and I would pay them according to the master's standards. ”
Fashion is a very low-level thing The pursuit of the source of happiness is the wisdom of life
The interview with Baima was about a café next to the Beijing Workers' Stadium, near his home. Bai Ma, who wears a suit, is tall and has an angular face, which is typical of Tibetan men.
Although home is in Beijing, Baima is still in Yunnan and Tibet for most of the time, "in the past two years, the Guangdian-Tibet line has been walked 14 times, each time for 7 days, mainly for new project sites." After Songzan Green Valley in 2001, he made 6 mountain residences and boutique hotels in the core area of "Three Rivers Flowing Together", and Songzan Lijiang and Songzan Lhasa also opened last year.
The next projects are also in Yunnan, because he has a deep affection for his hometown, from the entire Tibetan area to the small village of Kerna. "One-third of the people in the village are my relatives." At present, the children of Kena Village, from primary school to university, receive baima funding every year, as long as there is a Chinese, they can work at songzan hotel.
With less time to return to Beijing, Baima stored her family's photos in her mobile phone, set them as screensavers, lit up the screen, and saw their smiling faces.
The white horse in life is low-key and simple. When asked about hobbies, he hesitated for a moment, and his first reaction was "not interested." After thinking about it for a while, I answered: meditation and travel.
During his travels, he mainly looked at works of art and architecture, museums in New York and Paris, and European architecture, which he loved. The only luxury was in Bhutan in 2010, when "two people spent $18,000." For ten days, a driver and a housekeeper accompanied us throughout Bhutan and 5 AmanKora resorts. This time, it is also to investigate the travel operation mode for the "Songzan Ring Road".
He is not an architect, but insists that each hotel is designed by itself. The second project, Songzan (Shangri-La), has a scale of more than 20,000 square meters, and he has led more than 600 workers to carry out on-site construction. Even now, when a professional design team is introduced, the core design link is still personally controlled.
When it comes to fashion and trends, he shows a clear antipathy. "Fashion is actually a very low-level thing, so I have no interest," as a former media person, he basically does not watch TV now, and has never heard of hit variety shows such as "China has hip hop".
He prefers to devote his time and energy to the search for the source of happiness and the meaning of life, believing in "practicing on the path of life." "Too many people are materially rich, but mentally unhappy and particularly stressed. Songzan's culture, or our original intention, is to pursue the source of happiness. ”
In Baima's understanding, the source of happiness is an altruism for others, including the protection of the environment and nature. He only used old wood and the wood that had been hoarded on the market for the hotel, and after he could no longer find the hoarding, he bought it from Canada and the United States, "because their wood was not cut down from the forest, but was cleaned up after the wind and snow disasters." ”
In order to save the endangered white horse chicken in Meili Snow Mountain, he built a greenhouse in the forest and asked the people to find wild eggs in the mountains and use the chickens to hatch, which has been successfully bred.
Of course, he prefers his guests to find a source of happiness in Shangri-La.
"There is also a 'Shangri-La' in Tibetan culture. Legend has it that in a dimension near Mount Ganges, there is a peaceful, tranquil, and happy kingdom of Shambhala, and the passage to this kingdom is called the 'Navel of the Earth'. 'Songzan Ring Line' is the 'navel of the earth' that I artificially created in the Tibetan area of Diqing, my hometown, and when you walk down the loop, you can see the most beautiful scenery and the most original Tibetan culture, snow-capped mountains, canyons, temples, villages, traditional handicrafts, and simple villagers. You're not just staying in a hotel, you can also learn why this area is considered 'Shangri-La' and where is the source of happiness? ”
He also hopes that one day, he can re-present his thoughts on life in the form of a documentary. He hasn't made a documentary since 2002, and the hotel's promotional video has been largely unintended, except for the occasional aerial shoot. "The promotional video is not deep, I want to shoot something to think about, my understanding of life, my understanding of life." Maybe remake the "Portrait of the Mountain," "That's my dream." ”
Quick questions and quick answers
Q: What is your personal hobby?
A: I can take some time out of the day to meditate quietly, I used to insist on forty minutes a day, but now it's a little difficult to be too busy. That's probably my biggest hobby.
In addition, there are more trips, and the most important thing is to see the artwork. I love New York because it's the Metropolitan Museum, the Museum of Nature, and the Rubin Museum of Art about the Himalayas. I also love to look at architecture, even if it is how others make wrought iron, and learn to reflect beauty in the subtleties.
Q: Will you visit a hotel during your trip? Or go to a homestay?
A: Except for AmanKora, generally do not visit the hotel, go to the hotel is only to solve the problem of staying during the trip. There are not many homestays in China, and I only live in the French mountain house when I go to Moganshan. I like to stay in my own hotel, but I still want to stay in other homestays in the future, and maybe I will like it more slowly.
Q: The post-90s generation has become the main consumer force, will you cater to them?
A: I hope that people will come to Songzan and gain something through travel, see how people here think, how they see life, and then bring their feelings back to their own lives. My mission is not to cater to certain people, of course I think this kind of thinking is necessary for both the post-80s and post-90s.
Purple Cow News reporter | Wang Ye
Editor| Wan Huijuan Chen Dichen
(Editor: Karen)