Moreover, the annual Tibetan Sour Milk festival, featuring Tibetan opera and group prayers, was to begin at the Drepung on schedule on August 27, just days before the 30th anniversary of the establishment of the Tibet Autonomous Region. Economic development in Lhasa has clearly changed the city's landscape. More generally, throughout Tibet a growing economy appears to be improving the lives of many Tibetans, even as traditional ways of life are affected. In some instances, the government has tried to adopt policies responsive to Tibetan sensitivities, but has not always succeeded in addressing the dilemma of how to respect Tibetan culture without damaging the interests of Tibetans. For example, there is a two-track school system in Tibet, with one track using standard Chinese and the other teaching in the Tibetan language.
Students can choose which system to attend.
One negative side effect of this policy, which is designed to protect and maintain minority cultures, has been reinforcement of a segregated society. Under this separate educational system, those graduating from schools taught in languages other than standard Chinese are at a disadvantage in competing for jobs in government and business, which require good spoken Chinese. These graduates must take remedial language instruction before attending universities and colleges. Thus, despite continuing curbs on political expression, and on religious practice when it has political overtones, at least some Tibetans seem to have realized benefits from modernization. At the same time, poverty in both Lhasa and the Tibetan countryside remains a vexing problem.