Pastoralism and Rangeland Management on the Tibetan Plateau in ...

Source: Cui et al. 2011
Figure 1: L<strong>and</strong> use <strong>and</strong> agricultural patterns on the Tibetan Plateau
3 Social Changes
3.1 Institutional changes
In the past 50 years, a tremendous change has occurred in Tibet in terms of
political institutions, economic structure, culture, etc. Before 1959, Tibet basically
ran a feudal serfdom system, which meant that all productive materials,
including the rangel<strong>and</strong>s, livestock <strong>and</strong> even nomadic herders, were privately
owned by a small feudal upper class. In 1959, the feudal serfdom system was
abolished <strong>and</strong> replaced by a democratic system. Consequently, the herders <strong>and</strong>
farmers owned their own rangel<strong>and</strong> <strong>and</strong> livestock, as a private economy was
set up. This prompted rapid economic development. In 1965 the Government
of the TAR was formally established. Following this, the collective ownership
of productive materials was started under the People’s Commune System.
This institutional change was in existence until 1975. The socio-economic
development of Tibet was impacted negatively by the “Cultural Revolution”
(1966–1976). This resulted in the “Household Contract Responsibility System”
(HCRS) <strong>and</strong> the opening-up policies being implemented in Tibet only in 1984,
nearly 6 years later than occurred in inl<strong>and</strong> China.
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