Assistance and Communication
Due to high altitudes, cold weather and uneven population distribution, Tibet suffers higher costs for industrial development and human resources than many central and coastal regions. According to Yang Tao and Li Jian, the harsh natural environment is a core factor impeding Tibet’s endogenous development and self circulation. Tsering Yangdzom stressed that traditional culture and ethnic sentiment of Tibetans make them less enthusiastic about commercialization, so reform is evidently promoted from top to bottom.
Since the early 1980s, the Chinese government has formulated and implemented a series of major measures conducive to the development of Tibet and the well-being of Tibetan people by upholding the principle of catering to actual local conditions and putting people’s livelihood first. For this reason, government-backed national assistance is the most prominent feature of Tibet’s modernization. This is also a policy and measure for regional coordinated development with Chinese characteristics, which is rare worldwide.
In March 1984, the second National Conference on Work in Tibet passed a decision to organize governments of nine provinces and municipalities and several ministries and departments of the central government to construct 43 projects that Tibet urgently needed, especially public establishments such as power plants, schools, hospitals and cultural centers. Some of these projects later became landmarks in Lhasa such as the Lhasa Hotel, Tibet People’s Hall and Tibet Public Art Museum. Primary statistics show that by the end of 2018, nearly 10,000 assistance programs had been carried out in Tibet, nearly 8,000 officials had been dispatched to work in the autonomous region, and more than 30 billion yuan ( US$ 4.48 billion) in aid funds had been allotted to Tibet.
The first time Tsering Yangdzom left Tibet to study elsewhere in 1978, her family spent 61 yuan ( US$9.1) on her ticket from Lhasa to Chengdu. “That ticket cost what my mother earned in two whole months.” One of her classmates once asked her, “Do you eat rice and drink tap water at home?” Feeling discriminated against, young Yangdzom angrily answered, “We don’t eat or drink!”
With limited interactions and exchange taking place, such misconceptions were not uncommon back then. Not until the early 1980s were large-scale institutional aid projects benefiting Tibet launched across the country. Concrete action has also revealed channels and opportunities for mutual understanding and cultural integration between Tibet and the rest of China. Just as the Tibetan civilization has repeatedly integrated with other civilizations throughout history, mutual recognition between Tibet and the rest of China is also increasing.
On the celestial burial platform of the
famous Drikung Thil Monastery, a Tibetan asked Yang Tao whether the Han people considered sky burial cruel. Yang replied, “Of course not. That’s the real eternal home.” The Tibetan gave him a thumbs-up. On the way back, the Tibetan driver asked Yang what sounded good for dinner. He said anything would be fine, even just soup. “If you refuse to eat their food, they will think you don’t respect them. That driver assured me that I really do respect their customs.”
Because it is hard to grow vegetables in alpine areas, the traditional Tibetan diet usually consists of highland barley and meat. During a survey in Bainang County, Tibet’s Xigaze City, Li Jian discovered that Shandong Province, a major producer of vegetables, had been supporting Bainang since 1995. In addition to sending officials to aid Tibet, a group of Shandong farmers also ventured to Bainang to teach locals how to grow vegetables. Today, Bainang has become the largest plateau greenhouse vegetable base in Tibet, with annual sales exceeding 100 million yuan ( US$14.8 million). More and more Tibetans are beginning to embrace and eat vegetables.
Li stresses that Tibet’s uniqueness means that the autonomous region cannot directly copy the development modes of other parts of the country to solve its problems. According to him, however, alongside aid projects, new ideas and experiences are flowing into Tibet, fueling new development concepts.