By: Max St. George
During my time in Zhongdian I visited one of the CERS worker’s Tibetan home. The first room we explored was a traditional Tibetan kitchen and eating area. When first walking into the room there were many elaborate paintings of Buddhist deities and symbols. Furthermore, the wood carvings along the ceilings and walls were extremely detailed. Tsering Drolma, our guide, explained that all the wood carvings were done by hand and took three to four years to complete. We next observed the prayer room and learned more about Buddhist practices. The room contained a large sculpture of a Buddhist deity surrounded by many prayer scrolls, and was used for families to pray and prostrate. Prostrating is a Buddhist practice in which people drop down to their knees and then lay down touching their foreheads to the ground. They then stand up and do it over again. Some families prostrate in this room for two hours a day. The culture within the household blew my mind because it was so rich and went back centuries.
On the second day of the camp we ran for the town no kids showed up because the village chief told the students not to go. At first I was upset at the village chief and thought he was being ridiculous, but after talking about it with others I became understanding. He was scared that the camp would detract from the culture of the town and modernize the children.
That day I talked to Lobsang, Tsering Drolma’s husband, concerning the situation with the chief and Tibetan culture. He explained to me that in most of Tibet traditions were slowly dying. This is partly due to the increase in tourist that want to see and experience the untouched beauty of Tibet. As a result Tibetans are trying to profit off of it, and they are becoming more exposed to a modern, western way of living. He said this profit seeking lifestyle contradicts traditional culture where townspeople help each other for free and share resources. For example, traditionally a townsperson would offer a room to a traveler looking for a place to stay free of charge, but now they are asking for money for people to stay in their homes. This fading culture is also reflected in parts through the kids because they are starting to speak more Chinese with their families instead of Tibetan. This growing generation of kids and young adults are being faced with the decision to either live a traditional or western lifestyle.
This issue raises the question of my role in helping this community. At one point in my conversation with Lobsang we were discussing how the ACE team’s main purpose is not to teach English, but to let the kids interact with people from other parts of the world and experience different cultures. I initially felt that this was harmful to the fading culture. However, after thinking about it I realized that the long term goal of CERS was to create a community that was both culturally pure and somewhat modern at the same time, so the camp does aid in that endeavor. I think both Tsering Drolma and Lobsang are perfect examples of being culturally pure and modern without being western. Drolma especially has experienced Western society from living in the United States, but still works to preserve the Tibetan culture in her town. It will be interesting to see how the community will become with the help that the CERS team offers.
On the second day of the camp we ran for the town no kids showed up because the village chief told the students not to go. At first I was upset at the village chief and thought he was being ridiculous, but after talking about it with others I became understanding. He was scared that the camp would detract from the culture of the town and modernize the children.
That day I talked to Lobsang, Tsering Drolma’s husband, concerning the situation with the chief and Tibetan culture. He explained to me that in most of Tibet traditions were slowly dying. This is partly due to the increase in tourist that want to see and experience the untouched beauty of Tibet. As a result Tibetans are trying to profit off of it, and they are becoming more exposed to a modern, western way of living. He said this profit seeking lifestyle contradicts traditional culture where townspeople help each other for free and share resources. For example, traditionally a townsperson would offer a room to a traveler looking for a place to stay free of charge, but now they are asking for money for people to stay in their homes. This fading culture is also reflected in parts through the kids because they are starting to speak more Chinese with their families instead of Tibetan. This growing generation of kids and young adults are being faced with the decision to either live a traditional or western lifestyle.
This issue raises the question of my role in helping this community. At one point in my conversation with Lobsang we were discussing how the ACE team’s main purpose is not to teach English, but to let the kids interact with people from other parts of the world and experience different cultures. I initially felt that this was harmful to the fading culture. However, after thinking about it I realized that the long term goal of CERS was to create a community that was both culturally pure and somewhat modern at the same time, so the camp does aid in that endeavor. I think both Tsering Drolma and Lobsang are perfect examples of being culturally pure and modern without being western. Drolma especially has experienced Western society from living in the United States, but still works to preserve the Tibetan culture in her town. It will be interesting to see how the community will become with the help that the CERS team offers.