I use the paradox of the recent proliferation of Chinese – built greenhouses for vegetable growing in peri-urban Lhasa as a lens through which to examine the effects of national economic reform, the operation of hegemony, and the political-economic and cultural forces which shape everyday life in Tibet. I will research three questions: how land use and agricultural practices have changed in the Lhasa valley; why Tibetan and Chinese farmers engage in the kinds of agricultural practices that they do; and why they explain their practices in the way that they do. I ask how a particular discourse about Tibetans being “lazy” has been produced and maintained vis-à-vis land use and agricultural practices. The research project will make use of ethnographic methods and will engage with the literatures on political ecology, development, economic reform, Tibetan studies, and cultural studies.