Living Standards Leap: Education and Medical Services
Scholars at CTRC once conducted a familybased survey in Chamdo, eastern Tibet, to find out what parents expect their children to do for a living after they grow up. The survey, covering herders, farmers and urban residents, suggests that the most sought-after professions are doctors and civil servants.
Li Jian and the other three scholars found that the development of modernity is altering local people’s everyday lives through their own research in Tibet. Education is a crucial driver for developing a modern society in Tibet. Before the democratic reform of Tibet, the region lacked schools in the modern sense and less than two percent of school-age children had access to education. But now a sound educational system with Tibetan features and ethnic characteristics has taken shape, including pre-school, primary,
middle and high schools as well as vocational, adult training and higher education. Many Tibetan scholars such as Tsering Yangdzom and Wande Khar have become leading figures in the areas of their studies. Young Tibetans now have greater access to education and more opportunities to pursue personal development.
After the launch of China’s reform and opening up in the late 1970s, increasing numbers of farmers and herders began swarming into cities in search of jobs and business opportunities. The information and skills they acquired in the process returned to make a positive impact on the social development of Tibet. In Li Jian’s eyes, Tibetan society has benefited substantially from educational development and changing population structure especially since 2000. “The number of farmers and herders with fundamental education has risen dramatically in Tibet. Equipped with basic scientific and cultural knowledge, they are more productive than the previous generations, and also more socially inclusive.”
Looking back on her childhood in Lhasa, Tsering Yangdzom says, “Back then the only hospitals we could visit were the Tibet Autonomous Region People’s Hospital and Lhasa People’s Hospital. But now there are dozens in Lhasa.” Before the peaceful liberation of Tibet in 1951, just three poorly equipped
official medical institutions were available alongside a few private clinics. The ratio of medical staff to the total population in Tibet was a paltry 0.4 for every 1,000 people. Because of chills and lack of oxygen in the high-altitude region, even a cold or dysentery could be deadly, and an outbreak of smallpox or typhoid fever could easily kill thousands.
In the early 1950s, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army began to offer medical services to Tibetans as they trekked through the region. When the 21st century arrived, a healthcare system featuring free medical services covered all counties and more than 96 percent rural townships in Tibet. With maturing medical agencies and the estabalishment of a disease control and prevention system, Tibetans have seen great progress in health conditions and a remarkable rise in life expectancy from 35.5 years to 68 years. “Green medical passages” have been built in many herding areas, such as Damxung County in central Tibet, which Yangdzom visited with Yang Tao in 2011. “Patients who need more treatment are transferred to larger hospitals in cities or even Lhasa. Regular checks are performed on clinics in rural areas to ensure expired drugs are pulled off the shelves,” said Yangdzom.
Partly because of the local religious culture, many Tibetans formerly resisted both Western and traditional Chinese medicine. Instead, they looked to deities for recovery or only trusted Tibetan medicine. Yangdzom and Khar both noted that educational and medical development, which Tibetans value more since the democratic reform, has introduced the benefits of modern civilization. “After the peaceful liberation of Tibet, doctors from other parts of China helped locals tackle their health problems. Tibetans eventually accept that they should see a doctor when they get sick. In the past, a cold or dysentery could be deadly for some Tibetans, but after they tried granules or berberine for colds, they realized that medicines can cure and that such diseases didn’t mean a death sentence.”