Xizang at 75: Development and culture create a 'miracle on Earth'

Editor's note: Liang Junyan, a special commentator on current affairs for CGTN, is a researcher at the Institute of History Studies of China Tibetology Research Center. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

This year marks the 75th anniversary of the peaceful liberation of Xizang. As a scholar who has studied Xizang history and culture for two decades, I would like to share the transformation of this land from a first-hand perspective.

In the summer of 2007, I made my first research trip to Xizang. The road from the airport to the city was bumpy and long. Houses along the way were low and dilapidated. Many places relied on small hydropower stations, and the voltage was terribly unstable. Nearly 20 years later, when I set foot on this land again, everything had changed.

A 75-Year development miracle that spans millennia

Since its peaceful liberation and democratic reform, the face of the Snowy Plateau has undergone a fundamental transformation. Xizang's GDP grew from 327 million yuan ($47.87 million) in 1965 to 303.2 billion yuan ($ 44.39 billion) in 2025. Absolute poverty has been eradicated, average life expectancy has reached 72.5 years, and Xizang was among the first in China to implement 15 years of publicly funded education. In 2025, Xizang's GDP growth rate reached 7.0%, with its total economic output surpassing the 300-billion-yuan mark – a new milestone. The story behind these three 100-billion-yuan thresholds is telling: the first took 50 years, the second six years, and the third just four years.

Behind the economic figures lie tangible improvements in daily life. The region's total road mileage exceeds 120,000 kilometers, and the "Five Cities, Three Hours" expressway network is now fully connected. Construction of the Sichuan-Xizang Railway is progressing rapidly, and installed clean energy capacity has surpassed 10 million kilowatts. As the "Water Tower of Asia," the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau has always prioritized ecological protection. Xizang has established 47 nature reserves of various types and levels, covering more than one-third of the region's total land area.

Cultural preservation: More than just "preserving the past"

Xizang's fine traditional culture is now under systematic protection. The Epic of King Gesar, Tibetan opera, and Lum medicinal bathing of Sowa Rigpa have been inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The region is home to 2,760 representative intangible cultural heritage items of various types and levels, with 1,668 recognized inheritors. Between 2012 and 2024, central and regional government funds for intangible cultural heritage protection totaled 473 million yuan ($69.25 million). Major renovation projects for three key cultural relics – the Potala Palace, Norbulingka, and Sakya Monastery have been completed, and a decade-long, 300-million-yuan ($43.92 million) project to preserve and utilize the ancient texts of the Potala Palace is underway.

The learning and use of the Tibetan language have reached unprecedented levels. All primary and secondary schools offer courses in both Standard Chinese and Tibetan. Tibetan-language media now spans radio, television, online platforms, print publications, textbooks, and the publishing market. In fact, Tibetan became the first ethnic minority language in China to receive an international standard. In the Xizang boarding schools we visited, students have at least six Tibetan language classes each week, meaning they study their own language almost every day.

How development nourishes preservation: A positive interplay between economy and culture

There is a view that Xizang's charm lies precisely in its "pre-modern" condition–simple, devout, and far removed from industrial civilization. According to this logic, building roads, connecting power grids, and promoting modern education become threats to traditional culture. This view overlooks a basic fact: cultural preservation without material security is fragile.

During my research in Xizang, an elderly Thangka painter once told me that in the past, the biggest obstacle to taking on apprentices was not a lack of talent, but rather that parents saw herding as more practical than learning to paint – herding put money on the table, while an apprenticeship took three to five years to complete, something families simply could not afford. 

The painter's words illuminate a simple truth: the real enemy of cultural preservation has never been economic development, but poverty. When infrastructure improves, public services become universal, and people have some disposable income, cultural preservation finally has a foundation to stand on. The 473 million yuan ($69.25 million) designated for intangible cultural heritage, the modern school buildings on the plateau, the highways connecting urban and rural areas – all are proof that the fruits of economic development flow back into the cultural sphere.

But the reverse logic is equally important: economic development does not automatically translate into cultural prosperity. Turning economic gains into tangible cultural protection requires deliberate institutional design. Xizang's intangible cultural heritage protection has been effective not because "development naturally draws people to preservation," but because the central and regional governments established sustained, dedicated funding mechanisms. The Tibetan language has flourished in the multimedia age not because market forces drove it, but because the education system has long upheld a policy of bilingualism.

From the 29-Article Ordinance for Better Governance of Xizang in 1973 – which established the system of drawing lots from a golden urn to identify reincarnations – to the suite of cultural protection laws and regulations in place today, institutional safeguards have always been the key variable in Tibetan cultural preservation.

This is the real logic of Xizang's 75-year path: economic development provides the material foundation for cultural preservation, but does not substitute for the responsibility to preserve; cultural preservation injects cohesion and identity into development, but does not reject the dividends of modernization. The two do not harmonize automatically – their positive interplay is achieved through institutional arrangements. What Xizang's experience proves is neither the pessimistic prediction that "development destroys culture" nor the optimistic illusion that "development automatically saves culture." It proves something far more solid: under clear institutional safeguards, economic progress and cultural preservation can reinforce one another, together charting a path to modernization for an entire people.

Seventy-five years is but a brief moment in Xizang's millennia-old civilization. Yet the progress made in this brief moment surpasses that of any previous era. When I first visited Xizang in 2007, I thought the changes were already beyond my imagination. Looking back nearly 20 years later, today's Xizang has reached an entirely new level. This is not some impersonal, macro-level narrative; it is a transformation in daily life that every ordinary family can feel.

What drives the Snowy Plateau forward is a clear and steady logic of national governance: the vision of the Chinese national community – one that "enhances commonality while respecting and embracing differences" – is embedded in every infrastructure project, every effort to document intangible cultural heritage, and every ecological protection plan. Economic development provides the material foundation for cultural preservation, and cultural preservation infuses economic development with spiritual cohesion. The two have never been opposed; rather, together, they have brought about what can only be called "a miracle on the Snowy Plateau."

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