French Friends Drop in on a Tibetan Family

An 18-member delegation of Le Cercle Franco-Chinois (French- Chinese Circle) headed by its president and noted Sinologist Jacques Van Minden traveled to Tibet by train across the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau for a study tour. This was the first high- level French delegation to visit Tibet in recent years.

Despite their travel fatigue， delegation members were in high spirits. Among them were old friends of China who had visited many parts of the country， while others were paying their first trip and eager to know more about Tibet， such a mysterious place on the roof of the world. They wanted very much to learn through the visit about the real life of the Tibetan people and how much freedom of religion they actually enjoyed.

On May 9， the coach carrying the delegation to Xigaze stopped at Biza Village of Jiacuoxiong Township for a break. Jacques Van Minden and others dropped into Bianba Cering’s home， a Tibetan-style two- storey building. The rooms downstairs are used for storing sundry goods and farm tools while the upper floor contains the family living quarters. The building has an enclosed yard.

The hospitable host showed the French guests into the spacious living room and poured them fragrant butter tea. Conversation then started about the daily life of the family.

Bianba Cering is aged 41. There are five people in his family. His youngest son is studying elsewhere while his eldest son is working in the village by contracting construction projects. Lumber piled up in the courtyard proved to be material he bought for building houses for others. The family is a typical farmer household in that area. In the past， living on 8 mu of land， the family was hard up. Later， under government reforms， Bianba Cering began to raise cattle， pigs and chickens. Now there are eight cattle， more than 20 pigs， and over 3，000 chickens that have made him the local “chicken king”. He told the guests with a smile that the Central Government always cared about Tibetan people’s livelihood and provided all kinds of subsides to help develop production. Since his village began carrying out a housing project for low-income families in 2006， the government had given special subsidies to poor households lacking able-bodied workers， he explained. Though the life of his family had improved greatly， he had still been able to receive 12，000 yuan as a subsidy for building his house. When Jacques Van Minden asked him what had been the greatest change over the past decade， the Tibetan farmer offered several observations headed by religious belief and family planning. These had been sensitive issues in the past but there was no doubt that， for many years， the Tibetan people had been enjoying the most preferential treatment in these areas. But what had really impressed him in the past decade was the improvement of infrastructural facilities. Due to a sparse population in the area， there was only one dirt road near his house in the past. Now， the government had built four asphalt roads. All the 200 Tibetan households had access to electricity and television and telephone were widely used. In his family of five， everyone had a mobile phone. He had never dared even to imagine he could live such a good life.

When asked whether his produce could be sold freely and whether he could produce enough grain and vegetables for their own consumption， Bianba Cering said he could freely sell wheat and highland barley whilethe selling and buying of pigs， cows， chickens and mutton sheep could be carried out through the production cooperative or market. Because of the high altitude， the government encouraged farmers to built plastic “greenhouses” to grow vegetables. Hence， farmers lacked neither food nor clothing.

Time passed fast in pleasant chat. When the French guests saw in the room wall posters of the Chinese leaders of several generations， they had pictures taken in front of them.

The French guests were impressed by Bianba Cering’s straightforward way of talking and the visit to the farmer’s family enriched their knowledge about Tibet.

Outside the house， the sky was blue with a few floating white clouds and the air was fresh. Tibetan farmers were busy with spring ploughing in the fields and a pair of yaks pulled the plough side by side. Glaciers and high mountains were visible in the distance. It was a beautiful and harmonious picture of man and nature. The members of the delegation waved goodbye to Bianba Cering and the coach drove on along the highway to Xigaze.