Obóz uchodźców jako atrakcja turystyczna. Kto i po co od(z)wiedza diasporę tybetańską?

Abstract

Although the notion of a ‘refugee camp’ (imagined as a space of human suffering) and the term of a ‘tourist attraction’ do not seem to be parallel, the Tibetan refugee camps in India have been widely visited by different categories of tourists for years. These are the tourists called by Dean MacCannell modern pilgrims searching for authenticity. In my paper I examine the motivations of the “guests from the West” visiting a Tibetan diaspora and the way they are perceived by the “local community”, i.e. the refugees. Using these criteria I have created seven categories of tourists, who I used to meet during a few years of my fieldwork done among Tibetan refugees: causal tourists, tourists searching for spirituality, tourists-activists, tourists-researchers, hippie-tourists, tourists searching for love and celebrity tourists. Me myself – as an anthropologist – had been often classified by Tibetans into these categories. Obviously, these categories are fluid, intersecting and changeable over time and place. Nevertheless, they are
helpful in searching for the answer what attracts tourists to refugee camps.