Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
the breeze. Animal husbandry is still extremely important in Tibet, and there are around 21
million head of livestock in the country.
Until recently such communities were effectively self-sufficient in their needs and, al-
though theirs was a hard life, it could not be described as abject poverty. Plots of land were
usually graded in terms of quality and then distributed so that the land of any one family
included both better- and poorer-quality land. This is changing rapidly as many regions be-
come more economically developed.
Imports such as tea, porcelain, copper and iron from China were traditionally exchanged
for exports of wool and skins. Trading was usually carried out by nomads or in combina-
tion with pilgrimage. Most villages now have at least one entrepreneur who has set up a
shop and begun to ship in Chinese goods from the nearest urban centre.
One significant change to rural life has been the government-sponsored construction of
over 230,000 new houses across Tibet, providing new housing for some 1.3 million
Tibetan farmers and herders. Families are given around ¥10,000 to ¥15,000 as a base sub-
sidy to construct a home. A typical house might cost around ¥33,000 to ¥44,000 so farm-
ers usually take out a loan (interest-free for three years) to cover the remaining costs. Crit-
ics of the scheme claim that many of the new home-owners then have to rent out their
farmland to Chinese immigrants in order to pay off the loans.
Individual households normally have a shrine in the home and some religious texts, held
in a place of honour, which are reserved for occasions when a monk or holy man visits the
village. Ceremonies for blessing yaks and other livestock to ensure a productive year are
still held. One of the highlights of the year for rural Tibetans is visiting nearby monasteries
at festival times or making a pilgrimage to a holy site.
As traditional life reasserts itself after 50 years of communist dogma and the disastrous
Cultural Revolution, many of these traditions are slowly making a comeback.
Tibetans often gesture with their lips to indicate a particular direction, so if a member of
the opposite sex pouts at you, they are just showing you where to go. Also, if a road work-
er looks like he's blowing you kisses, he probably just wants a cigarette. Then again,
maybe he's just blowing you kisses…
 
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