宗须村乡村教师索朗多吉

Overlooking the township of Chudogyang in Chusum County of Lhoka City,the snow on top of Mt.Rensum Gonpo was hanging on.It was April 14.A new week was about to start.Sonam Dorje,a primary school teacher in Dzongxu Village of Chudogyang,was riding his motorcycle on a country road.Thinking of the many things to attend to at the school,he hit the throttle.Every weekend,Sonam Dorje has to travel between his home in Jiangtang Village and the small learning center in Dzongxu Village at least once.     

Scholar Hailing From Deep Mountains──Story of Dr. Nyima Zhaxi

On the vast land of the Tibet Autonomous Region, few Tibetans have gained a PhD. Among the few in the past 50 years is Nyima Zhaxi.A CHILD SHEPHERD. Nyima Zhaxi was born into a herder's family in Gyiling Township, Zhanang County. He herded sheep to help his parents eke out a living when very young. However, he kept learning from one of his uncles, an educated man. He entered a primary school at nine.The school lay across a high mountain, so that Nyima had to spend a whole day in m…     

Soinam Wangdui and Archaeological Work

In 1951, when Tibet won peaceful liberation, Soinam Wangdui was nine years old and liv-ing in the Chongsaikang area of Lhasa. Apprenticed to a master cobbler, he made shoes for the PLA troops.Later, the cobbler guild arranged for him to stay with his uncle, accompanying his cousins to the largest private school in Lhasa. This gave him the chance to learn to read and write. He went to study in the Lhasa Primary School     

'Chairman Mao Has Sent His Men Here'——Eyewitness to the Founding of the Tibet Autonomous Region

I have known old Toinzhub foryears. After only one meeting, heseemed to sense what was on mymind and could always talk aboutmy favorite subject. A day passesby slowly along with his sips of liquorand his vivid and detailed narration.That noon, I met the old man in thecourtyard and invited him to have a drinkand chat in my home. As the liquor tookhold, he began to talk freely of the eventsof the past forty years.In 1965, when the Tibet AutonomousRegion was founded, he was 21 and wasstudying …     

Serving My Hometown With Knowledge I Have Learned──An Interview With Tibet's First Weather PhD Xudo

In 1985, Xudo received a letterfrom the Nanjing Weather Col-lege, informing him he had beenaccepted to study in the college.He was only 16. He was happy and so were his par-ents. However,where cou1d he getmoney to cover his study in Nanjing?His parents sold a draught cow,and heleft home with 200 Yuan in his pocket. With this sum, and with allowancesgiven by the college and subsidies fromhis unc1e who taught in Tibet, he ekedout a living and grew into a Tibetan     

Dosang Who Assists the Poor to Get Rid of Poverty

Dosang, living in Qoidain Rango Village in Lungren Town of Damxiong County, is a herder-turned-businessman. When hewas a child, his family was very poor.With the help of fellow villagers, he wasable to join the Chinese People's Libera-tion Army in 1970. After retiring from thearmy in 1975, he stayed in Lhasa to work.Some years later, he resigned from his joband started his own business. Since he hadlearned to drive as well as other skills inthe army, he has been able to run an auto-mobil…     

Daniel Defoe

正Daniel Defoe(1660-1731)was born in London in a butcher's family.Like Pope,he never went to university,but he received a good education in one of the best Dissenting academies.His father had wished him to be a clergyman,but he found himself interested in business.Defoe started as a small merchant and all his life his business underwent many ups and downs,and yet he was never beaten.His quick mind,abundant     

MINISTER ON BUIL DING OF THE QINGHAI-TIBET RAILWAY——AN INTERVIEW WITH RAILWAY VICE-MINISTER SUN YONGFU

Editor＇s Note：Sun Yongfu is now vice-minister of railways. In 1962, when he graduated from the Department of Bridges and Tunnels of the Changsha Railway Institute of Hunan Province, he was assigned to work in the Zhengzhou Railway Bureau. In a survey of the bearing capacity of railway bridges, he examined bridges one by one from Zhengzhou in Henan Province to Wuhan in Hubei Province. On this basis, he produced the studies that made him famous and led to his promotion as one of the senior technical personnel. In the ensuing years, he participated in construction of a number of railways, including the Sichuan-Guizhou, Guizhou- Kunming, Chengdu-Kunming and Hunan-Guizhou lines. He also participated in the China-aided construction of the railway between Tanzania and Zambia. In 1984, Sun was promoted to be vice-minister of railways and was put in charge of national planning and construction. He presided over the construction of some 10,000 km of trunk line, including the Beijing-Kowloon, Datong-Qinhuangdao, Nanning-Kunming and Hengyang-Guangzhou railways. In early 2001, Premier Zhu Rongji proposed Sun to be the deputy head of the leading group for the construction of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway, taking charge of the routine work. In the document Premier Zhu signed, Sun was allowed to enjoy treatment due to a minister （instead of a vice-minister）. On June 29, 2001, when the inauguration ceremony for construction of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway was held in Lhasa,     

Butler of The Potala Palace

When Qamba Lobsang bade farewell to his uncle at the Norbu Lingka, summer palace of the Dalai Lama, he didn't realize he would be doing the same job as the old man in the future: serving as a butler at the palace.However, what Galsang is doing is somewhat different from what his uncle used to do. As a senior official under the Gaxag government in old Tibet, his uncle was charged with tending the Potala Palace and Norbu Lingka. As     

THE STORY OF KONGSA YEDOG

Kongsa Yedog, originally named Yexei Dorje, was born into a common farming family in Gyangze County of the Xigaze area in 1916. In his teens, he was taken into the Tashilhungpo Monastery by his monk uncle to study Tibetan language and sutras, studying together with several older male apprentices under an old lama. One year later, Yexei Dorje passed the examinations to become a real Zhaba of the monastery. One morning, the atmosphere in Tashilhungpo Monastery was hushed, and the curious Y…     

Ellis Gene Smith and His Tibetan Buddhist Resource Center

Ellis Gene Smith was born in Ogden in the American state of Utah on August 10th 1936 to a Mormon family. He graduated from Adelphi College, Hobart College, and the University of Utah. In 1959, he obtained a BA on Regional Research in Asia from the University of Washington in Seattle. From 1960 to 1964, he studied for his Masters Degree in the Mongolian and Tibetan languages at the same university. During that period, he also took up a position as a teaching assistant. In 1964,     

Huang Hao and Tibetan Studies

Ican't believe Huang Hao has passed away. Not long ago, when I went to the hospital to visit him,he talked with me about life and work and of his planned workingschedule one he recovered. His suddendeath undoubtedly is a great loss toTibetan studies. Personally speaking, Ihave lost a respected teacher and friend. Huang Hao was born in 1933 in Bei-jing. In 1955, on the advice of his maternalgrandfather, Mr. Luo Changpei, a well-known linguist, he entered the Central Insti-tute for Nat…     

Tibet＇s LAST CARAVAN WITH TRANSPORTING SALT （1）

Gyayang Xirab （1957-2004） was born into a far from well-off herder family from a pasturing area of northern Tibet. In 1971,he had only just begun going to the primary school at the age of 14.In 1978,he was allowed to stay as a teacher after graduating from middle school.     

THE DEMOCRACY REEORM EMANCIPATED ALL SERFS INCLUDING ME

As a member of a big aristocratic family in old Tibet,Horkhang Champa Tendar lived the sweet life,but bitter experiences also happened to him.In his old age,though both honor and dishonor sometimes came to him,he was never bothered,and he always carried on without any concern for his life.After retiring,though Gyama Village had no close relatives,he prefers to commute between Gyama and the city to contribute to the course of local development.His passionate sentiments toward his hometown and this land so impressed me I am profoundly touched.     

THE ORIGINS OF THE DALAI LAMA REINCARNATION SYSTEM

正Toward the beginning of the 1400s, the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism came into existence, and it was not long before a man by the name of Gedun Druppa, a disciple of the great Master Tsongkhapa during his later years, established the school's largest monastery in Tsang region (in today's Shigatse City of Tibet Autonomous Region):the Tashilhunpo Monastery. When he died, talk     

The Lingering Affections OF A JOURNALIST

正A story in which a photographer helped a Tibetan girl to obtain treatment from doctors during his interviews in Tibet Autonomous Region was moved to a stage performance in the Grand National Theatre.Although this photographer has left Tibet many years ago,he is still the"prototype"of this stage performance.     

Old Shezang＇s Story

The Namseling Manor rests on a site by a river, south of Samye Monastery and within the boundary of Namseling Village, County of Chanang in Lhoka Prefecture. The Manor was built during the Phagdrup regime. The Namseling Manor is a model of Tibetan feudal serfdom society. As an early, large-scalemanor house built in a time when Tibetan society lived under a serf-based regime, Namseling has survived hundreds of years as a witness to the formation and development of a feudal manor. After democratic reform in Tibet, the Namseling Manor stood deserted for more than half a century. The present manor, no longer what it once was, has embraced many life stories, including that of Shezang. The now elderly Shezang was born in Nagqu in 1927. Both his parents were servants in the nobleman＇s household. At 14 he was taken to Lhasa to work as a babysitter. The next year his parents passed away one by one. A fellow villager told him the news when he returned to Namseling at 26. Shezang has a younger sisterbut they were separated in Nagqu when both were still young. They never met again.     

One Day With the 11th Panchen Erdeni

At7 in the morning, we went to see the 11th Panchen Erdeni at his resident palace in Xigaze. The building was brightly lit. "He is taking a shower," said the monk who opened the door for us. Half an hour later, we found him. Dressed neatly, he was kowtowing to the statue of Sakyamuni, founder of Buddhism. Following this, he started to recite surras: Sutra of Paying Sacrifices and Laud to Master Zongkapa. Both laud Master