The population is about four thousand. The Lhoba people mainly reside in the Luoyu area in the southeast of Tibet Autonomous Region and the adjacent Zayu, Medog, Milin and Longzi counties, etc. The Lhoba people living in the north of Medog County use the Tibetan language and the rest use the Lhoba language. The LLoba language belongs to the Tibeto-Burman languages of the Sino-Tibetan language family (the branch undetermined) and their dialects vary from place to place. The Lhoba ethnic group does not have its own script and a few people use the Tibetan characters. In the 1950s, the Lhoba used the original method of slash-and-burn cultivation in farming and the grain output was of low efficiency. At that time, they still had to rely on collection and hunting to make a living. In recent decades, with the support from the country and other ethnic groups, the Lhoba have embarked on the ways of modernisation and their economic and cultural developments have been promoted rapidly. The religious belief of Lhoba is mainly worship of ghosts and gods and they believe in animism. They attribute birth, aging, illness, death and disasters to the ghost spirit. After the harvest every year, the Lhoba people hold a harvest festival for nearly two days, which is call the “Angdelin Festival”.