China Daily Global Edition (USA)
Helping far away needy
Most officials spend anywhere between one and three years working in remote villages as part of the Tibet autonomous region’s plan, launched in 2011, to develop grassroots communities.
But Phurbu Tsering, an official with the Gyirong county government, is an exception — he has been working in Ta village since 2013.
The 52-year-old was a secretary and township head elsewhere in the county for more than a decade before coming to Ta, with its population of 532 spread across 119 households.
Working with the villagers brings him great happiness, he said, which is fortunate as he has had only three vacations in the past 25 years.
He seldom visits his wife and children, who live in the county town, because it is difficult to travel between there and Ta, which is surrounded by thick woods and snowcapped mountains.
Since arriving in the village, Phurbu Tsering has managed to effect several positive changes, such as putting up fencing to keep wild boars and monkeys away from the villagers’ crops.
He raised money for this project by applying to the local government, which provided 150,000 yuan ($22,200) as well as calling on his friends, who collectively gave an additional 40,000 yuan.
The official also opened the village’s first shop, which sells goods brought in from Lhasa, as well as a mill to grind flour for tsamba, a staple foodstuff in the region made from roasted highland barley flour mixed with butter tea.
“The villagers can now purchase their daily necessities without spending a lot of money or having to travel very far,” Phurbu Tsering said.
“We do charge a fee for grinding flour or milling tsamba, but all the profits go to a common fund, which is used for other public needs, such as paying the medical bills of the poor.”
The village’s only road, barely wide enough for a single car to traverse back in the 1990s, has since been widened, and work started in March last year on a new road, which will serve every household and link the village with the nearest town.
It has not all been plain sailing for Ta over the years, however.
When the deadly 8.1-magnitude earthquake struck neighboring Nepal in April 2015, Gyirong county was also badly affected.
Phurbu Tsering was in the county town on business at the time, and upon returning to Ta two days afterward, he was shocked to see the devastation.
“When I got back to the village, the scene I saw saddened me — the sky was dark and cloudy, and there was debris everywhere. Most of the people were sad or fearful,” he said.
“I comforted the villagers by telling them the government would help them. I told them the government would provide them daily supplies, food and other necessities.”
Before the earthquake, everyone in Ta lived in houses made from clay and wood that were small, dark and cramped.
In response to the disaster, which caused widespread damage, the government built new houses for each family that cost about 182,000 yuan each. Construction of all 119 houses was completed by the end of last year.
“Thanks to the government, all the houses in the village are new, two-story brick-and-cement dwellings, with bedrooms for each family member,” Phurbu Tsering said.
“All the houses are equipped with water closets, which they did not have in the past, and all are designed to have a place to install shower facilities.”
In the past, villagers would keep their cows and sheep in their yards, which sometimes resulted in illnesses, such as echinococcosis, a parasitic disease associated with tapeworms.
“Now the animals have separate sheds, and the villagers no longer have to suffer the smell of cow dung in their yards in the summer,” the official said.
One elderly villager named Lhakpa said she felt sorry for Phurbu Tsering because he always seemed to be tied down with work and barely had enough time to rest.
“I regard him as a good leader, and we are happy to have him in the village,” said the 73-year-old.
“When I was young, there often wasn’t enough food to go around, but life is good now, with abundant food and other necessities.
“In the past, we sometimes didn’t even have the ingredients for tsamba, whereas now we have so much food that we can get sick of eating tsamba — even the dogs don’t want it!”
The villagers can now purchase their daily necessities without spending a lot of money or having to travel very far.” Phurbu Tsering, official in Gyirong county government