These communities preciously take care of their traditions and they offer us the possibility to learn

 from their choice.

Indonesia, Waerebo – a traditional village where the people decided to live as their ancestors, refusing the occidental lifestyle. The community is self-sustained by selling textile hand crafts, coffee

 from their plantation and hosting the tourists that climb up the mountain to visit them.

Myanmar, Mandalay – a family that continues to manually produce gold leaves. These leaves are sold and used by pilgrims as offerings to sacred statues in Buddhists temples. The entire family works in this business.

China, Xizhou – families that still live in their own traditional house while keeping them as living museums. They show their lifestyle as well as their ancestral history to the tourists that accept to push their front door.

While spending time with these communities and families, we realize the unique opportunity of witnessing their attempt to preserve pieces of memory. We become aware about the role we can play in this process by choosing which kind of tourism we want: a mass tourism with the same standard all over the world, or a local tourism that helps to preserve the regional culture?