The economy of Tibet focuses on subsistence agriculture, and due to the limited amount of arable land, the raising of livestock such as sheep, yak, horses, camels, and cattle dominate the small farms throughout the region. Even though a majority of farmers raise livestock, many crops are grown to support the local economy and families in Tibet, including wheat, barley, buckwheat, rye, potatoes, fruits, and vegetables. The picture to the left shows a local farmers' market in Tibet's capital city of Lhasa.
According to the UN Development Program Data on the Human Development Index, Tibet is ranked lowest among China's 31 provinces. In recent years, Tibetan Buddhism has attracted many tourists, opening up Tibet to the important economic contributor of foreign tourism. The sale of Tibetan handicrafts such as hats, jewelry, rugs, carpets, clothing, quilts,and wooden items provides most of Tibet's economic income from foreign tourism. The Central People's Republic of China aids the Tibetan economy by exempting them from all taxes and by providing ninety percent of all government expenditures. The recently opened Qingzang railway that opened in 2006 aided in Tibetan transportation by linking the Tibet Autonomous Region with the Qinghai Province to the east. In January of 2007, the government of China released information confirming the discovery of large mineral deposits located under the Tibetan Plateau worth an estimated $128 billion, capable of doubling the Chinese reserves of zinc, copper, and lead. However, critics argue that the extraction of these minerals may extremely damage the Tibetan ecosystem and undervalue Tibetan culture. The expansion of the Tibetan economy took another leap forward with the construction of its first expressway extending 38 kilometers in the southwestern portion of the prefecture of Lhasa which was announced on January 15, 2009.
In January of 2010, Chinese leaders attended a national conference and committed themselves to further development of Tibet and its ethnic areas. The conference drew up a plan to increase Tibetan income to match national standards by 2020 and for free education for all rural children throughout the region. Since 2001 China has invested $45.6 billion in Tibet alone, aiding in Tibet's GDP of $7.2 billion in 2009 which is up 170 percent from 2000, an annual growth of 12.3 percent over the past nine years.
Although China is significantly investing in Tibet, many Tibetans protest against Chinese presence in a gruesome fashion. On April 27, 1998, the first self-immolation, where people light themselves on fire, took place in protest of Chinese influence in Tibet and for Tibetan independence. Since then hundreds of Tibetan ethnic natives have committed self-immolation in order to gain international attention to a growing struggle for Tibetan's. The picture to the left portrays a young Tibetan that committed self-immolation in May of 2012. The Chinese government is continually working to suppress self-immolation protests by cracking down on witnesses and severely punishing those involved in the process. Chinese officials in Tibet have intensified measures to prevent information from leaking internationally about these protests against Chinese rule, using aggressive tactics such as harsh sentences and torture.
Since March 16, 2011, 124 ethnic Tibetans have committed self-immolation. The picture to the right shows 41 year old Tsultrim Gyatso who is the latest Tibetan to commit self-immolation on December 19, 2013. He and many other martyrs display the growing social tensions of ethnic Tibetans against Chinese rule in Tibet.