This book explores the relationship between tourism, culture and identity in Tibet, focusing in particular on Shangrila, a Tibetan region in Southwest China.

1. Localizing Shangrila 2. The Political Economy of Tourism 3. Issues and Methods 4. Sacred Space, State Territory and Tourist Destination 5. Hallowed Ground 6. Imagining the Nation 7. Shangrila: A Space of Dreams 8. Tourism, Place-Making and Tibetan Identity

Åshild Kolås is a social anthropologist and researcher at the International Peace Research Institute, Oslo. She has conducted extensive fieldwork in northern India and western China, studying Tibetan ethnic and religious identity, and the cultural politics of tourism.