Tenzin's story

Tenzin is a 38 year old female nomad from Nyari prefecture in the Tibetan Autonomous Region. She and her family had lived in a traditional Tibetan nomads’ tent in grasslands where they were free to roam over vast areas of the Plateau grazing their herds.

 

Here Tenzin recounts to Free Tibet how they and other families in her village were forced to move out of their tents into permanent brick houses. The houses were situated in small blocks of land that were fenced off from other houses with barbed wire, forcing the nomads to drastically reduce the size of their herds through slaughter and making it impossible to adequately graze the yaks and goats that remained after slaughter.

 

 PHOTO: Jim McGill Photography www.photo444.com

"I liked my life before I moved"

In Yakra Twonship there are many different villages like East and South Yakra. My village is one of them. In my village alone almost 500 permanent brick houses have been built in only four years.

l liked my life before I moved into a permanent brick house. We were living in a Tibetan traditional nomadic tent before the Chinese government forced us to move into the house. I was grazing animals during my childhood and at that time we had a lot of animals but after I grew up an elder I was no longer grazing the animals.

After we moved into the new house we were facing a lot of problems with our animals because there was not enough grassland after it was divided between so many families. For example, before we were told to move into the new comfort houses the nomads in our village were living happily and were friendly to each other. There were no boundaries for each family’s animals. The animals were grazing wherever there were good grass and water. Animals were able to grow and develop and reproduced well. But after the division of the grasslands among the nomad families some nomad families didn’t get good grassland. This meant their animals got weak and did not develop fully. This is one reason why families are more hostile to each other these days

Even those nomad families who were given good grassland for the animals and who have increasing numbers of livestock each year, are forced to give some of their animals to the government. This is because the government has a quota system for the maximum number of animals. Some of the nomads secretly slaughter the animals ourselves.

 Every year the nomads were grazing their animals in all the good grasslands because they wanted to get more income for a better life, but once the government introduced the quotas we had to slaughter the animals secretly. Some times it was too much meat for us so we had to dry the meat, but most of the time we had to sell it secretly which meant that we got very little money. But it was better to eat the meat than just to give the animals to the government as a punishment. But if the government hadn’t made the quota and taxes then we would have kept the animals so that they could reproduce. With more animals the nomad could make more profit because there would be more butter, milk and wool to sell.'

"When we were living in the tent we could go everywhere during the summer times as we moved our herds over vast distances, grazing our animals on rich grasslands... But now we are removed into the permanent brick houses we have lost that way of life forever."

PHOTO: Jim McGill Photography

 

 A Way of Life Lost

 

We felt very sad that we had to leave the nomadic tents in which we grew up, where there were so many memories for us to share and enjoy.

 

When we were living in the tent we could go everywhere during the summer times as we moved our herds over vast distances, grazing our animals on rich grasslands; and in the winter times we could also travel to other places to sell our products like butter, meat and animal skins. But now we are removed into the permanent brick houses we have lost that way of life forever. We felt very sad.

 

We nomads treat our animals like family. We love our animals so much. Every year, we would only slaughter one or two animals to eat during the winter times. This is because it’s so cold that nomads have to get heat from eating meat during winter. But no one would slaughter more animals than they could eat. But now when we are forced to slaughter the animals when they are more than the quota it hurts us. We feel that we are no longer nomads and have become butchers instead.

 The Chinese government has made a quota of the sheep, goats and other livestock which each person in a family may own. Each person may own thirty sheep and four yaks.  If  a family goes beyond this quota they must give the government all the extra animals as a punishment or tax.'

Nomads face a "bleak future"

'Before the resettlement policy, during the summer times we moved our herds over vast distances, grazing our yaks or sheep on rich grassland wherever we could.

 

Now the Chinese government has made boundaries to our summer grassland distances and limited the periods for the summer grazing time. We have become like students in a school and have to do every thing under the rules and orders.

Although the nomads have been allotted a small area of grassland, it is insufficient for their animals. There have been incidents in Ngari prefecture in which there have been killings, such as when two cousin brothers fought each other over their insufficient grassland and one of them was killed. The other one is in prison now.

Before the new policy, in our village some nomad families had more than thousand animals. They kept the new-born animals and this meant that when there were bad snow storms during the winter times and many animals were killed, they were still left with enough animals to make a living.

 

But nowadays, with nomads only allowed to keep a certain quota of animals, if a bad snow disaster killed large numbers of animals, a family may be left with no animals. This is why the nomads are facing a bleak future with many of them becoming trapped in poverty and no longer wanting to be a nomad.'

A Better Livelihood 'Government quotas on animals and incidents when one cousin was killed by another were unheard of in our parents’ time but it is happening now. We  imagine losing our ability to maintain our traditionally livelihoods.   Now that the government had made all these new rules and quotas many nomads are no longer able to provide for their families. Some nomad families have fallen into poverty. Many of them went to the towns or cities to search for a better livelihood.   But in the cities they encounter great problems. They have lived so long in the nomadic areas and they only know the way of being a nomad. They lack education and skills to find employment in the towns.

PHOTO: Anthony Alvarez "In my own opinion the Chinese government’s propaganda that they are resettling nomads into 'comfortable houses' means nothing. In fact they are trying to extinguish our traditional way of life..."

Some nomads who could speak a little Chinese language were able to find jobs in restaurants but most of them are facing problems because they cannot speak Chinese.

The nomads who went into town or city in search of a better livelihood are becoming rogues due to their poverty and inability to find work. The young nomad boys are drawn into lives of stealing, alcoholism and young girls are becoming prostitutes everywhere.

Some nomads like my parents and grand parents were so sad to lose their traditional way of life as Tibetan nomads.

 Some times they were complaining that they could no longer bear the noise from living in the cities. They say now every thing is controlled by the government and we are just like servants of the Chinese government.'

Extinguishing Tradition

 I don’t think there is a future for the Tibetan nomads because the Chinese government is trying to destroy our Tibetan nomad traditions. The government has introduced stress and poverty and made nomads feel they have no chance of making a livelihood. Tibetan nomads will withdraw from the world if the Chinese government still keeps those rules and quota. I feel very sad and sympathetic to the nomads in Tibet who work very hard to earn a better life under the Chinese restrictions.

In my own opinion the Chinese government’s propaganda that they are resettling nomads into “comfortable houses” means nothing. In fact they are trying to extinguish our traditional way of life and are only interested in seeing to their own interests.'