Locals dance in front of the Potala Palace in Lhasa， capital of southwest Chinas Tibet Autonomous Region， to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the regions founding on September 8.

The autonomous region was founded on September 1， 1965， following the establishment of the regional peoples congress， the local legislature. Tibet won peaceful liberation in 1951， two years after the founding of the Peoples Republic of China. After suppressing an armed rebellion in 1959， the Central Government initiated a democratic reform to abolish theocratic feudal serfdom that had lasted in the region for hundreds of years.

Official statistics show the regions GDP and fiscal revenue have increased 68 times and 564 times respectively in the past five decades.