During the Spring Festival and Tibetan New Year period over 1,000 villagers from Nachen Thamar village in Lhasa’s Chengguan District gathered in a conference hall. It was a joyous and auspicious New Year as they watched the village art team’s Tibetan song and dance performance.

Thamar village is located in eastern Lhasa and has 997 houses with over 1,900 people. In recent years, village land has been expropriated due to urban development. The villagers now live in five high standard residential quarters consisting of Tibetan style villas and apartments. They live urban lives and work in the city.

Lantern Festival was on the 22nd which is also the 15th day of Tibetan New Year, but the village cadres were still busy. Kelsang Drolkar, first secretary of the village party branch, and Phuntsog, first director of the village committee, took part in an interview. Kelsang Drolkar said that during the holiday, besides the usual work shifts and organizing celebratory activities, she was busy thinking about a work plan for Thamar village in the New Year.

"After New Year there are several things we must act on: those five-storey buildings in Chongsazu must be rented out as either hotels or hospitals; more than 60 shop front houses must be built surrounding Chongsazu to be distributed to the people to run various businesses; endowment insurance will be paid from the village collective starting this year; and build a car wash, said Kelsang Drolkar.

Last year the per capita income in Thamar village reached 14,427 yuan, of which 5,000 to5,500 yuan was collective income for those receiving dividends. In addition, apart from enjoying state pension subsidies, over 60-year-olds can also receive a village collective welfare payment of 1,200 yuan per person per year.

Looking at the per capita income figures, Thamar villagers can already be considered “moderately prosperous”. However, Kelsang Drolkar has a bigger dream: “We must further improve the village collective income distribution system. In the next five years the people’s dividend will increase more than 20% annually and I can guarantee it will have doubled by 2020.”

After land acquisition and resettlement of Thamar village, only 40% compensation was initially paid. The remaining 60% was used in redevelopment and ensuring sustainable development by building hotels, office buildings and commercial buildings; increasing vocational skills training; organizing for working adults to open shops and run transport and real estate businesses; and participate in various commercial performances. As a result, the vast majority of people have found stable employment with prosperity growing day by day.  

On knocking at the door of one family, we found 61-year-old Lobsang standing on a stool drawing the blind on his awning. He invited us into his living room where the table was filled with all kinds of food and his daughter Dekyi brought out some sweet-smelling tea.

Lobsang said there are six in his family and they moved to their new house in August last year. It is a two-storey 165 square meter building with 11 rooms and made entirely from stone and wood. The reporter noticed that the rooms were carefully decorated with fully equipped furniture and electrical appliances. The owner said that230,000 was spent on decoration.

On asking them their plan for the New Year and suggestions for village work, Lobsang thought for a while and said National policies are favorable and the village is good to the people so we have no requirements or suggestions. I only hope that my grandchildren are healthy, study well and are able to go to school on the mainland.” He added, “there really isn’t anything to worry about, which was unimaginable in the past.”