New Tibet

Tibetans celebrate the coming new year

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-02-22 21:36

LHASA -- After hanging on the door strips of hada, a white long silk scarf considered as a token of blessing, Degyi Drolkar paced excitedly through her new, 198-square-meter home in Gongka Township near Lhasa as she decorated for the Tibetan New Year which falls on Wednesday.

A Tibetan woman makes traditional Tibetan snacks at her house in Longzi county of Shannan prefecture, southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, February 21, 2009. Tibetan people were preparing the "festival necessities" to celebrate the upcoming Tibetan New Year, which falls on February 25 this year. [Xinhua]

She also hung the portraits of current and former top Chinese leaders, including that of Chairman Mao Zedong, on a most conspicuous position of the wall.

She looked forward to spending a happy and warm Tibetan New Year in her new house with her family members.

"Never have I imagined owning such a big house," the 36-year-old Tibetan woman said.

"My family used to squeeze into a small room, which was dark and humid, and now each of my three sons can have their own room," she beamed.

Neither had Degyi ever imagined paying only 6,000 yuan (about US$878) for a new home. Thanks to a housing program for low-income rural families, however, the woman and 24 other households in Gongka, will celebrate the traditional Tibetan New Year in new homes.

She also got a set of furniture valued at 8,000 yuan from the township government for free.

The program was launched in 2006. In 2008, the regional government earmarked 680 million yuan to help about 57,800 households of farmers and herdsmen improve their living conditions, according to the Construction Department of the Tibet Autonomous Region.