Pastoral nomads, who graze their
herds over the Tibetan plateau, call themselves Drokba. Their chief contribution
to the economy of
and economic reforms have taken place in
provides a description and interpretation of the impact of
In the early 1950s, when the Chinese communist leadership initiated efforts towards economic reconstruction, it regarded the huge coast-interior imbalance as irrational for three reasons. First, areas of industrial production on the coast were too far away from energy and raw material supply areas and the interior market. Secondly, the rich resources of the inland areas could not be properly exploited. Thirdly, the coast was easily exposed to foreign military powers (Yu Di, 1983). To rectify the regional imbalance, the central government decided to take an interior-oriented investment policy. These redistributive investment efforts are reflected in provincial output changes from the 1950s to the late 1970s.
Post-Mao government policies have favored the coastal region over the interior. The government sees developing the coastal region as being in the national interest and believes coastal development will serve as a catalyst in the modernization of the entire country.
new strategy assigned each region a special role. Current governmental policy
regarding the poorer areas has been oriented towards the pragmatic objective of
enabling the poor to feed themselves. "Backward" regions, including
In 1979, after thirty years following a system of state monopoly for purchasing and marketing agricultural products, the central government began to readjust its agriculture and animal husbandry policies by raising the prices of many products and encouraging free markets. Between 1979 and 1985, the average sale price of the main agricultural and livestock products rose 25 to 85% or more. Much of the extra money from the rise in prices has gone to Tibetan pastoral nomads, with their large livestock herds.
The transformation of the Tibetan economy
Before 1959, the traditional
to 1959, agriculture was only at subsistence level owing to the brief duration
of the summer season and poor irrigation facilities and other factors,
including the lack of modern tools. The main crops of
agriculture, livestock farming is the other main occupation of Tibetans. The
yak is the most important animal in
traditional economy of
In 1951, the
agreement for the "peaceful liberation" of
death of Mao heralded some of the most significant changes in
1979, the central government has gradually but steadily reversed the Maoist
model and come to adopt a new development strategy. In 1980, a high-level
the early 1980s, communes were disbanded completely, and land was allocated to
individual households to do with as they wished. There was no mention in the
press of the ‘responsibility system’ prevalent in the rest of
A Drokba community in northern
Doma is a
local level administrative unit (Known as Xiang) in
the Doma District (Qu), Amdo county (Xian), Naquk
prefecture (Zhuanqqu), Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR).
It is located in the central section of the Northern Plateau, which is situated
at altitudes ranging from 4,780-5,230m. Doma is
located 370km north of
nomads in the Northern Plateau experience one of the most severe climates in
the world. Winter lows range from minus 20-50 degrees F, and mid-summer lows
are around freezing. Winter winds are fierce, and very strong throughout the
rest of year except the growing season. Precipitation is monsoonal, falling
mostly during June, July, and August, often in the form of snow and hail
storms. In general, there is very little snow in the winter, although late fall
and spring snows are greatly feared. The single growing season in the Northern
Plateau begins in late April-early May and ends in September. Even during this period,
snow, hail storms and evening frosts are common. Since no pasture areas in
In 1987, Doma contained 98 households and 502 persons divided among 14 home-base settlements (guoxie, which means group, or neighborhood). Such a settlement consists of between 6 to 7 households or tents. Generally, there are two sets of correlated ordering principles of settlement: kinship, social structure and affinity; and location.
Tents are made of yak hair cloth, loosely woven in narrow strips and sewn together. In shape the tent is rectangular, often some twelve feet in length. It is supported on two poles tied to pegs or heavy stones in the ground with yak hair ropes. An aperture, about two feet long in the middle of the roof, lets out the smoke (or at least some of it). These tents are waterproof and impervious to snow. In the center of tent, or near the entrance, is a stove made of stone and mud. Recently some households have started to use iron stoves. Dung is used as fuel, for most Tibetan herdsmen usually live above the elevations at which trees can grow. Typically, inside the tent there are cooking utensils, buckets and churns, rugs, saddles, and cloth bags containing food. Most nomads have few belongings and lead a very hard life. An ordinary tent affords a home to five or six persons, but many are fuller. The nomads raise yak, sheep, goats and horses, and do not engage in any farming. 23% of their livestock are yak, and 70% are sheep and goats in Domw.
1959, the nomads of Doma were directly controlled by
the government of
in 1959, the central government had adopted a policy to bring
During the "Cultural Revolution" (1966-1976) Doma became one production brigade. The nomads became "owners" of shares in the brigade, but in reality were simply laborers who worked according to the brigade leader's orders. The pastoral technology remained basically the same, but social and political organization were restructured by transferring ownership of the means of production and all production and trade decisions from the household to the brigade. However, full-scale pastoralists' traditional culture also came under severe attack. The government's overt policy during this period was to maintain pastoral production but to destroy the social and cultural fabric of the nomads' traditional way of life (Goldstein and Beall, 1989).
the reform beginning in the late 1970s,
The traditional system of pastoral production
Pastoralism is a subsistence
strategy. The pastoralism of
At Doma, animal husbandry is based on effectively exploiting the single, short growing season. Doma nomads prolong their herds' access to good quality pasture by moving themselves and their livestock annually between at least two or three encampments. In general, they move from a winter-spring season home-base encampment to summer encampment for the several months between mid-late May and mid-late October. The nomads reason that on an individual household basis, increasing herd size during good years provides necessary insurance against the inevitable bad years when heavy snow or drought decimates their herds by making them more susceptible to disease and winter cold. Pastoralism, here as else where, is a risky undertaking.
Daily management tends toward efficiency of allocation of labor, and during the daylight hours the nomads prefer to keep animals clustered in flocks or sub-flocks within the larger groups. These herd management groups generally include 15 to 25 yak and 70 to 130 sheep and goats. One or two persons, usually young men, can supervise such groups, which are relatively easy to direct for pasture and water.
There is usually a division of labor by gender. Milking is carried out by women and livestock trade by the men. General supervision can be carried out by both. Sometimes sheep and goats are looked after separately by youths and women; these animals are divided into male and female groups to reduce fighting among males. Watering is normally carried out directly in small rivulets in the pastures.
unique feature of the traditional
(pre-1959) pastoral system that is no longer being practiced is the
complex administrative system of pasture allocation and reallocation. The then
Transformation of the pastoral economy
The New Transportation Network
For centuries, all transportation
central government of
the nomads in Doma, the Qinghai-Tibet highway is
extremely important for their social and economic life. The highway,
As a signal of the nomads' new era, a "truckable" road from Amdo county to Doma was constructed in the mid 1980s. In the summer of 1986, seven households at Doma joined together to buy an old Chinese truck. This is a new common property resource in the pastoral area.
1986 a ground satellite communications station has been set up in Amdo county. The people living in and near the county town
have been able to watch
Reorientation of Trade
In its purest form, pastoralism is
an economic system in which all food for the household is produced from
domestic herds. But few pastoralists depend solely on their livestock. They
supplement milk and meat from their domestic herds with grain consumption. The
degree of dependence on farm products varies as do ways for obtaining them,
either directly through farming pursuits or indirectly through trade. Even the Maasai in
(1) Barter of grain, salt and livestock products
An economy based on livestock products is very efficient in fulfilling human requirements for protein. According to the nomads' standard, a herd of 50 sheep or 6-7 yak would be enough to meet the protein needs of an adult (Geleg, Zhang, Ang, and Liu, 1988). It takes a considerably larger number to meet caloric needs, a fact that suggests the rationality of adding grain to the diet. In Doma, grain is a seasonal replacement for milk and meat, but also a regular supplement and ultimate reserve for bad years. Because roughly 40%-60% of these nomads' annual calories derive from barley and other grains, trade for grain has always been an integral component of their subsistence economy.
and other crops are grown mainly in south eastern
Historically, Tibetan nomads were the primary producers
of salt for
(2) Wool and cashmere trade
Wool has been the most important
trade item for the nomads in Doma. Wool from Doma and Amdo areas has had a
commercial reputation for a long time. Before 1959, a profitable
(3) Butter and beef market
Both traditional and more recent
taxation have been in butter and beef. Milk is processed into butter. In
Doma, roughly 70%-80% of total milk production is
consumed locally; only 20%-30% is traded. The general absence of a large
surplus of butter for trade was noted everywhere in
to our empirical investigation of milk production in Doma,
one explanation for low milk and butter production is that herd husbandry is
oriented towards beef rather than butter production. Why has the demand for
beef risen? So far, at least two things are clear. As incomes in the nation,
especially in urban areas, go up, the demand for beef will rise. From
1980-1984, the numbers of employees who work for government agencies at
different levels in
present, there are three important types of trade at Doma.
We can speak of trade with the government, at the district and county levels;
and trade with people from the cities, like Naquk,
are four principal differences between traditional trade within
The new development policy gives nomads and farmers the right to sell their products to whomever they want, but the bulk of the nomads' wool and cashmere trade is conducted with the district's trade office through a system of contract or quota sales. The reason for this is simple: the nomads are being asked by local (district and county) officials to sell a quota to the government, and there are strong pressures to meet such requests. Such trade is carried on as follows. The Naquk prefecture’s trade office makes a contract with the county's trade office to buy a specific quantity of livestock products, according to the number of head of livestock in each of its districts. The district calculates the amount of wool and cashmere which each nomads' group must provide to the government, based on the number of livestock in each. The district administrators inform each household what it has to provide. In general, a variety of threats and sanctions are employed to compel the nomads to sell this quota to the government before they sell anything on the open market.
1986, the county trade office paid the nomads 2.5-3 yuan
or 6 jin of grain per jin
of wool and then sold it to the prefecture for 4 yuan, making
a profit of more than 30%. They paid the nomads 12 yuan
per jin for
cashmere, and sold it to Naquk for 19 yuan per jin. The gross
profit is actually larger than this because many nomads take grain rather than
money and the county obtains grain for 0.6-0.4 yuan
less than it charges the nomads. One jin of goat
cashmere sold in 1986 for 45-48 yuan per jin in
is said to have been sold in 1986 to
economic exploitation of the nomads is also occurring at the district level.
The nomads are compelled to sell butter and sheep to district oficials for the officials’ own consumption needs. In Doma, we saw the nomads sell sheep for 28 yuan each to district official. But, at the same place and
almost same time, the nomads were selling sheep at 50-55 yuan
each to outsiders. In
wool was traditionally
the nomads in Doma, regional integration into these
markets has caused both an increased emphasis on cash and a shift in local
trade from barter to cash exchange. Since 1980 the building of infrastructures
in communication and transport stands as the main positive achievement. More
recently there appears to have been an influx of goods, ideas and people on a
scale that has materially altered life. These have accompanied the recent
administrative movements towards deregulation and a cash economy that are
similar to those in inner
The different orientation of production leads to a different set of management strategies by herders. If the goal is to maximize milk or meat production for sale, the objective is to have a herding operation that will give the best returns with a minimum investment of labor (Moran, 1982). Daily management tends towards efficiently of allocating labor, and during daylight hours people prefer to keep animals clustered in flocks within larger groups. In Doma, such management groups are 15-20 for yak, and 70-130 for sheep and goats.
expanding monetary economy is felt not only in changes in the local
availability, or price level, of grain but also through changed facilities for
the marketing of livestock. Tibetan pastoralists have a reputation for being
reluctant to sell their animals. Livestock have served as an investment in many
places in the world. In
The market-pricing process makes people more aware of the possibilities inherent in slaughtering livestock earlier in the season. In effect, pastoralists now own the livestock themselves, and in areas near urban areas there clearly has developed an open market in livestock. Beyond the livestock, which is contracted to the state, surplus livestock can be sold in these markets for cash, and this has begun to alter people's attitudes towards breeding for market.
The Household Economy
In the summer 1987, Doma contained 98 household and 502 persons. In Doma, most nomads live in smaller, nuclear family households, of over five members, on average. At the beginning of decollectivisation (1981), all households had the opportunity to "shake off poverty". The nomads were free sell or barter their animals as they saw fit; all the animals of the brigade were divided equally among the nomads regardless of their class, background, or age. Each Doma adult or child received 48 head of livestock. In addition, households were allowed to retain the "private" animals they held during the commune era. This raised the average to 51 animals per person.
In 1987, six years after the division following decollectivisation, economic differentiation has reemerged in Doma. Again, there are now both wealthy and poor nomads. As a result of this process of economic differentiation, the richer 24% of households in 1987 owned 44.5% of the animals. There was an increasing concentration of animals in the hands of the upper 24% of the households and the emergence once again of a lower stratum of households with few animals. Several cases of how rich and poor households managed their household economics can illustrate their very different strategies for survival.
This household is a typical "nuclear" family in Doma. It is made up of a man (39 years old), his wife (36) and their three children (16, 14 and 9). In 1981, they had in all 63 yak, 118 sheep, 67 goats and 2 horses. In 1987, the family had 82 yak, 205 sheep, 5 horses and 41 goats. Since the distribution of the collective property to individuals, there has been an increase in value, or effective size, of the family herd of over one-third. This is not from purchase or re-allocation, but from natural increase, locally estimated at 25% per annum, minus the number sold for slaughter over the period. At 1987 Naquk sale prices these animals would have a value of around 48,000 RMB yuan, that is 9,700 yuan per capita. The value of livestock for this household is more than the average for this nomadic community.
This household is relatively wealthy in Doma. It contains 8 members: husband (53), the first wife (49), the second wife (42, sister of the first wife), the wives' mother, two daughters (22, 20), a son (11), and an adopted son (19). We can find strong support for the relationship between family size and wealth in this case. This husband said: "I want as many children as come…if somebody dies, we should make sure there are more." When he had had two daughters, he wanted a son, so he adopted a child from a relative.
the summer of 1987 this household owned 812 animals (137 yak, 298 sheep, 9
houses and 368 goats) more than 101 animals per person. The market value of
these animals (1987) was about 121,000 RMB yuan
(US$24,200). This household slaughtered 3 yak, and 80 sheep and goats for meat
in 1986. In this year, the household sold 154 kilograms of wool at 3.5 yuan per kilogram, 25 kilograms of cashmere at 14 yuan per kilogram, 15 sheep at 30 yuan
and 2 yak at 465 yuan to the local government. At the
same time, this household sold 30 kilograms of cashmere at 18.5 yuan per kilogram to businessmen from
the summer of 1987, the household hired a man from another nomad community and
a woman from a southern village. In 1986, the family paid 12 sheep, and 370 yuan as wages. The husband said he would like to sell more
beef in Naquk and
householder regards his livestock as mainly an item for trade, not for dairy
products. He said that he was planning to sell wool, cashmere or other
livestock products in border trade with
1986, the household had to purchase barley, wheat, rice, and cooking oil. The
household consumes 90 kilograms of grain per month, which they obtain from the Doma district office and the free market, sometimes paying
with cash and sometimes in butter, beef and wool. He makes cash purchases of
tea (from Sichuang), cigarettes (made in coastal
This household, by contrast, is one of the poorest in Doma. The household contains 4 persons: the father, who has a drinking problem (58), his daughter (32) and her two illegitimate children. In the summer of 1986 this family owned only 2 yak, 20 sheep and 13 goats. In that fall, the district office gave this household four female yak to help them develop their own herd. But, by the winter, they had slaughtered two of these yak for meat and sold one for cash. The household also bartered two sheep and one goat with farmer-traders from the south for 110 kilograms of barley flour. In 1987, this woman spun 25 kilograms of yak hair for her relative and received 2 kilograms of butter, 5 kilograms of beef and 2 sheep as wages. Her son, 14 years old, worked 4 months as a herder for a household simply for better food and one sheep as salary.
This household is not as poor as the household in case three, but has been a loser in the economic transformation. The household has 5 members: a man (29), his brother (unmarried, 21), his mother (48), his wife (23), and a male child (2). In 1984, this household still owned 317 animals. In the winter of 1985, these two brothers took the traditional two-months trading trip with their carrying animals (yak) to barter salt in farm areas. But in the southern villages, they found the market was changing: the price of grain rose, due to the government's new price policy and a bad harvest, while the price of salt fell (salt from Qinghai and Sichuang was cheap). The brothers earned less from the sale of their salt than they had ever made previously. On the way back home, they had to sell their animals for cash. After their return, the brothers sold almost half of their animals, and took a loan of 7,000 yuan. They opened a teahouse in the Amdo county town. The teahouse closed after it operated for four months. There were three reasons: first, they put too much butter and sugar in the tea; second, they always served free tea to their friends and relatives; third, a Chinese from Sichuang opened a restaurant and teahouse next door. In the cold spring of 1987, the household received 250 kilograms of barley as welfare from the local government. Their herd was reduced to 185 in the summer of 1987. The younger brother had to work for three months as a herder for a household in another encampment.
Now, members for the poorer households must work for wages and accept welfare from the government. The rich households on the other hand, as they did before the mid-1960s, hire poor nomads to do many of the difficult jobs. The poor nomads see this change as a part of the traditional way of things, and the rich generally treat their poor fellows quite kindly. The nomads said "This is our Drokba way."
The economic transformation that occurred in the pastoral areas of northern Tibet have come about at least in part because of the same material and ideological forces that have had their impact over all of China since the new, regional development policies have been implemented.
the Tibet Autonomous Region during the 1980's the main achievement was the
development of an infrastructure for communication and transport. The economic
reform also presented the possibility that the introduction of commercial
marketing would promote the development of a vertical structure, with trade
centered in urban centers in either the Tibet Autonomous Region or inner
The post-Mao regional development policy cannot guarantee a harmony of interests among the regions. The policy is one which concentrates on developing the coastal regions rather than the interior. Transmission of development from region to region is not automatic. The implications of this thesis are pointed out most forcefully by John Friedman in his, A General Theory of Polarized Development. He argues that development is a process of innovation which aims "to transform the established structure of society by attracting creative or innovative personalities into the enclaves of accelerated change; by encouraging the formation of new values, attitudes, and behavior traits consistent with the innovation; by fomenting a social environment favorable to innovative activity; and by bringing into existence yet further innovations" (82).
According to Friedman, conditions that are especially favorable to innovation are generally found in large and rapidly growing urban systems. Moreover, successful innovation tends to increase the potential power of innovators. As a result, the centers of innovation tend to penetrate and dominate the periphery through trade, transport networks, new communication systems, and production and market relations. In the meantime, new desires and frustrations will grow in the peripheral areas and give rise to demands for autonomy, or even political conflict with the core.
This general integration of pastoralism into a market economy, together with new development policies, has brought some new, even more serious problems for more equitable and stable long-term development.
Cai, Ruikang "Highway and Airport Construction in
Clarke, G E "
Friedman, John "A General Theory of Polarized Development", in Hansen, Niles ed., Growth Centers in Regional Economic Development, New York: The Free Press, 1972.
Chang Jiangshe, Ang Caidang and Liu Yimin Changtang Drokba (The Nomads on the Northern Plateau),
Goldstein, M C and Beall, C M "The Impact of
A. T . The Making of Modern
R. The Changing Face of
Yu Di. Zhongguo Jingji dili xue (
Business Press 1983.
 One was a monk, the other a lay official.
 Grunfeld, 210.
 At Doma, green foliage first appears in late April or early May on the spring-fed wet meadows and river banks that cover just a small part of the summer grazing area. The bulk of the land is covered by plant communities that depend on monsoonal precipitation and these begin to play a role in livestock forage selection in late May or early June. Foliage is sufficient to wean newborn lambs and kids and begin milking only in mid-June. The growing season ends in September.
region is contiguous to
TAR corresponds closely to political
 Japanese vehicles started to be imported in the late 1970s and appeared on the plateau in the middle 1980s.
 In Doma butter is still made in a very primitive way by some nomads. Milk is poured into a yak skin slung supported by two posts. After a few hours the butter is found floating and buttermilk is separated and used in other ways. In the Northern Plateau, butter can be stored for several months without getting rancid.
 100$ =346.14 yuan in 1986
1 jin =500 grams
 Actually, people might note that this is unofficial, as people are not obliged to sell to the government by law.
 Grain increased from 0.40 per kilogram in 1983 to 1.00-1.20 in 1987. Tea increased from 1.75 to 1.90 yuan per brick in 1986.
 About $ 12,000
 The free market selling price in Naquk in the spring of 1987 was 600 yuan for a yak and 55 to 65 yuan for a sheep.
 Doma is about 500 km from
 They have to buy gasoline on the "black market" or from the government's drivers at 3 to 4 yuan per gallon. The official prices is 0.9 to 1.10 yuan for one gallon.
 In 1987, 4.58 of the Doma population were considered illegitimate.
 1986 was to be the first year in which interest had to be paid.