Developing Tibet

Developing Tibet

Since the communist takeover in 1951, China has directed tremendous amounts of policy towards improving Tibet’s economy, and assimilating the region into the Chinese Han culture. China has attempted to move Tibet from a primitive self-sufficient society, to a modern, agricultural, and industrial Chinese society. Before the communists entered the region, Tibet was a deeply religious society of mainly nomads where animal husbandry and agriculture formed the basis of the economy. The Buddhist faith was the foundation of society, which preached the concept of not concerning one’s self with material wealth. A constant search for inner peace, and spiritual fulfillment were the aspirations of most Tibetans in society, and all Tibetans acknowledged the Dalai Lama as the Religious and Political leader. There was no opposition towards his authority, and the peaceful society that he led. This all changed when the Chinese communists entered in 1951. The communist takeover has sent Tibet into a crash course of modernization. Development projects throughout the whole region have been instituted in order to improve economic indicators such as GDP and average household wealth. China utilized Tibet’s natural resources in order to gain wealth and help the Tibetan economy modernize. Today, Tibet is a far different place from fifty years ago. The capital of Lhasa, once a deeply religious society home to the Dalai Lama, has become an increasingly modern Chinese society, where Tibetans own very little productive property, and the traditional Tibetan values by which it was ruled have withered away. The result of Chinese modernization of Tibet has helped out the macro economy considerably, but the distribution of this wealth has ...

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