According to the Economy and Social Development Report of Tibet 2006 released by the Tibetan branch of China's National Statistics Bureau, the autonomous region had 143,900 civil vehicles by the end of 2006, a jump of 35.2 percent from a year earlier, Xinhua reported Thursday.

Cars drive on the street in Lhasa, capital of China's Tibet Autonomous Region. (file)

The number of cars, which may be humbled by inland especially coastal Chinese cities, is a remarkable increase nonetheless in the remote and thin-populated region. With the population of 2,81 million, currently about 20 Tibetans own a private car on average.

A horse, rifle and sword that used to be necessities of a man traveling around, are making a shift in Tibet into an engine.

Middle school teacher Mima drives a homemade off-road in Lhasa, the capital. "It's seven kilometres between home and the school. And I love drive-travel out of town to take photographs," he said.

Actually it's the third vehicle that Mima has bought in the past two years, as he attaches great importance on cars' sporting performance.

Integration of Tibet as a tourist destination into the national economy has brought opportunities to Tibetans and vehicle sales. Ge Sang Da Wa, previously a herdsman then a cargo delivery driver in the western town of Ali, sold his truck last year and bought a jeep to serve tourists streaming into Tibet through the Qinghai-Tibet Railway.

Today among Tibetan young people, it's no longer livestock or jewels to be used in judging a family's wealth, but owning a car or not.

With the convenience and efficiency bought about by the modern machinery into herdsmen's life, the well-preserved land is beginning to take on baneful symptoms - environmental concerns aroused by intensified vehicle emission, and traffic congestions and scarce parking lots. Sometimes, "bumper-to-bumper cars chock the streets for half an hour at the heaviest commute hours," said Lamu, who works near Lhasa's city centre.