Life hard for newly urbanized Tibetan nomads
Peter Terpstra
(TibetanReview.net, Dec31, 2009) On Dec 30, China’s party mouthpiece People’s
Daily Online reported that the 50,000 Tibetan herders who had “left” the
Sanjiangyuan area in Qinghai Province under China's largest ecological
protection project, were encountering many problems such as how to remove the
language barrier and find jobs after they were settled in urban areas.
The nomads were forced to settle in numerous new urban clusters. One such
cluster was the Kunlun Ethnic Culture Village, built in Golmud, and used to
settle 1,700 Tibetan herders in 2006.
The report cited Tudeng Cairang, a 44-year-old herder, as saying that when he
was leading a nomadic life, he could earn 30,000 yuan per year while the cows
and sheep his family owned met all his family’s needs for meat, milk and
heating. But now “we have to buy all the living items by ourselves. Since I
haven't found a job, my family of six depend on the annual 6,000-yuan subsidy
granted by the local government and our savings, which are running out," he
was quoted as saying.
The report said that since most of the immigrated Tibetan herdsmen could
neither speak the Chinese language nor had any skill, it was hard for them to
find a job. "The language barrier is one factor, but what's more worse is that
we are uneducated and don't have skills," Tudeng was quoted as saying.
Only few have managed to adapt and do well in their new urban life.
The biggest positive factor the report cited for the urbanization of the
Tibetan herdsmen is their access to education. "Our children are our greatest
hope," Tudeng, still remaining unemployed, was quoted as saying.
http://www.tibetanreview.net/news.php?showfooter=1&id=5206
--
Amnesty International Report 2009 on China:
http://report2009.amnesty.org/en/regions/asia-pacific/china