The old town of Lhasa has seen the passage of some 1,300 years. In old Tibet, the gov-ernment invested much in the development of religion instead of development of the social econo-my and towards raising the people's living standards. The narrow streets were lined with rows of small, low, dark and damp houses that, from a living point of view,were utterly unspeakable. After so many centuries, by the middle of the 20th centu-ry, the town was definitely showing its age.