New Year cheer soars for Tibetans lifted from poverty

Poverty alleviation

Thanks to the government's poverty alleviation campaign in the past few years, more people have some money to spare, so New Year spending budgets have increased.

Lhakpa Butri, 36, lives in Shaitonmon county, one of the 19 places in the Tibet autonomous region lifted from poverty in 2019. Her family was among the last ones removed from the poverty list.

"This year, I am going to celebrate our New Year in our new home, which was provided by the government for the village's poverty alleviation relocation project," she said, adding that her family didn't have a proper house before they were relocated last year.

Lhakpa does environmental patrol work in the village and receives an annual subsidy of 3,500 yuan ($510) from the government.

"During the last New Year, we were very poor, so I could only afford two sheep, but for this coming New Year, I bought a cow's leg, and three sheep," Lhakpa said.

"We no longer suffer from hunger and cold, and there are huge varieties of shopping goods compared with previous years," she said.

Apart from meat, her family has also bought many other goods for the festival, including snacks, beer, and New Year couplets featuring Tibetan cultural elements.

"I am so excited about celebrating the New Year in the new location, where it's easy for many villagers to gather for dance and songs," she said.