Published by: World Tibet Network News, Thursday, January 25, 1996

Source: Xinhua news agency, Beijing, in English 0241 gmt 23 Jan 96

Text of report by Xinhua news agency

Lhasa, 23rd January: Tibetans have learned how to make 20 to 30 times the amount of money made previously from a head of sheep, pushing the autonomous region's animal husbandry onto a new track and helping Tibetans leave their poverty behind.

For generations, Tibetans lived a nomadic life in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. Most Tibetans often faced poverty in the past, with only their herds of cattle and flocks of sheep, as the traditional notion that doing business was shameful prevented them from making more money by selling their cattle and sheep.

With the deepening of the reforms, the concept of a market economy has begun to take root here, and instead of exchanging their cattle and sheep for a little highland barley, a few radishes or some pocket money as they did before, they now sell wool and cashmere to the state, sheepskin to hide dealers, and mutton to markets.

Even sheep's heads, which used to be left alone, can now be sold to dealers who use them for handicrafts with ethnic characteristics.