Women have made great contributions to the
industrial development of Tibet,especially to the
development of its national handicrafts industry.
By the end of 1992, women workers accounted for
32.5 percent of all workers in Tibet and up to 85
percent of workers in the textile and handicrafts
industries.
Kardian, a type of tranditional
carpet with a history of more than 600 years, is considered
a necessary possession by Tibetans, but it is also an
elegant example of traditional handiwork. A kardian factory
in Zedang Village,Nedong Degyi Choedon, and vice director,
Tsering Choedhar, are sisters.
Before they
took over theis kardian factory in 1986, it was on the verge
of bankruptcy because of poor management. The teo sisters
reformed its operation and management and in 1990 extended
its workshop with a 500,000-yuan loan they received from the
AUtonomuous Region Government. Then they started to search
for customers. As a result, the production value in 1991 had
doubled,which allowed them hundreds of thousands of yuan in
profits after they had repaid the loan. The carpets they
produce not only sell well in Tibetan markets but are also
exported to Nepal,Germany and the United States.
The factory also makes carpets according to
the special requirements of foreign cuatomeers. At the
factory's wxhibition hall are many examples of the colorful
carpets and citations and silk banners awarded by the
Autonomous Region Government, the Ministry of Light Industry
and the State Nationalities Affairs Commission.
In talking about prospects of the factory,
Degyi Choedon said,"Modern enterprise needs modern
management. I had no chance to go to school when I was yong.
Now. I often feel that my ability falls short of my wishes.
My yonger sister is better than I because she went
to middle school in Changzhou, a well-known
industrial city in Jiangsu Province. I hope more
educated young people would come to work in our
township enterprises."
With the
development of the commodity economy in Tibet and the
expansion of the market,moer and moer Tibfan women are doing
businness.An outstanding one is Tsamchoe,vice-director of
the supply and marketing cooperative in Yadong County.She
took the position in 1983 and is in charge of the whole
cooperative.
"There are times
when women couldn't even look men in the eye.Now women can
make accomplishments in their work just like men." she
said. She made an effort to organize the suppke og goods
according to the market demands.After working from 1985 to
1992,the Yadong supply and marketing cooperative not only
returned a loan of 440,000yuan,but also made a profit of
771,300yuan, which ranked first among their counterparts in
the Xigaze area,in 1991the cooperative was chosen as the
"National Advanced Unit in Accoubnting ;" in
1993,Tsamchoe was conferred the national"Women's
Contributions" award for urban women.
Barkhor Street is a must for domestic and
foreign tourists and pilgrims who visit Lhasa to
see.Encircling the Jokhang Monastery,the street is 600
meters long,lined on both sides with shops abd stalls,it
offers an abundance of typical Tibetan daily
necessities,handrcraft arti9cles and goods for
pilgrims,and empties the purses of many
tourists.Therefore,many clever Tibetan women choose it as
their market.
Pema,27,has had her shop on
Barkhor Street for six years. In addition to typical Tibetan
commodities,she sells beautiful Southeast Asian products
that she buys in Zham port,where she travels twice a year.
With a superb collection of goods,her shops is
booming.
Commercial activities extend the
scope of Tibetan women's economic activity.The exchange of
urban and rural commoditites not only activates the
market,but also trains a generation of Tibetan
businesswomen,with townswomen contacting the countryside and
herdswomen and women peathe towns.Tsamlag,a self-employed
businesswoman in Chengguan (the area just outside a city
gate)
District of Lhasa , has gone
as far as Shanghai , Guangzhou and Hangzhou to replenish her
Stock, Moreover, be has established business contacts in
these large cities. Her useless volume has expanded from
several thousand to more than 100,000 yuan.
According to statistics, 55. 1 percent of the
4,937 self- employed industrialists and businessmen in
Chengguan District of Lhasa are women, tibetan businesswomen
can also be seen I Xigaze, Zham port Nyingchi and Nagqu.
You can even find women involved in
international useless negotiations held in Tibet, Rinchen
Choedom is an interpreter at the Foreign Trade and Economic
Cooperation 'apartment of the Tibet Autonomous Region. In
1991 she radiated with high Darks from the College
of Social Sciences t the University of Vancouver in Canada.
Despite an invitation from three high-paying
Canadian companies, she returned to bet. For two
years she has had much success as an interpreter : a series
of important trade talks with foreigners.
It
has taken only 30 years for the agricultural industry in
(bet to go from primitive slash-and-burn cultivation to
beginning modern production. Today, some families of Tibetan
farmers and herdsmen are trying to promote agriculture and
animal husbandry by making use of science and technology,
more and more Tibetan women are joining this group.
Anzi is a rather famous farmer known as the
best plant breeding expert in Lhozhag County. After she
returned to her village in the early 1970s, after
graduating from agricultural ethnology training in Nedong
County, she bred about 2,500 kilograms of improved varieties
of seed for her production team hatch year. By 1979 she had
developed more than 30 seed ampler. In order to disseminate
these improved varieties of seed. Anzi experimented with
them on the 6.2-mu (15 mu=one hectare) field that
had been contracted by her family for many years. Improved
varieties of highland barley and winter cheat which were
successfully grown in her experiments have sheen used by the
farmers, the ''Anzi-l '' improved variety of highland barley
and the improved variety of "'gabo' spring wheat"
she has developed using routine seed selection methods have
become favorites with peasants in Lhozhag County. Farmers
who grew the improved varieties Anzi developed cad increased
their per-mu yield from more than 200 to about 450
kilograms. ''The seeds Anzi breeds are the most reliable, ''
they said. Anzi is a deputy to the Third and the Fourth
People': Congress of the Tibet Autonomous Region, a March 8
Pace-setter and a labor model of the Autonomous
Region. But she contends, ''I'm still a farce: a woman who
plants crops.''
In order to popularize the
practical scientific technologies in Tibet's Federation of
the Tibet Autonomous Region in 1988 launched a
"Learn and Compete" campaign across these areas.
"Learn" is to acquire knowledge and
skills,and to "compete" is to move toward
achievements and contributions. More than 150,000 women have
attended night schools and practical technology training
classes, and over 90 percent of women have acquired from two
to three pratical skills in farming and animal husbandry.
This new-found knowledge has paved the way for them to
become rich through farm production.
Tsering
Paimo, a farmer at Qoinda Village,Dagze County, reaped rich
harvests for many years running through scientific farming
and her stock-raising bussiness.She has sold 4,650 kgs of
extra grains and over one hundred small domestic animals to
the state.In 1992 she bought a walking tractor
to transport goods for others and earned an annual income of
nearly 10,000 yuan. As deputy head of Choedhar Village,
Tsering Palmo didn't forget to help poor households to shed
their poverty after her own family had become rich. Dechen's
husband dies early and she had to raise for children by
herself. Tsering Palmo helped her turn up the soil and plant
crops,gather and transport wheat. Once,when one of Dechen's
children contracted an acute disease. Tsering Palmo rode the
child on her tractor the 80 km to the Lhasa Municipal
Hospital.
Led by Tsring Palmo, the villagers
improved lives year after year. The average annual income
per capita in 1992 was 672 yuan. At the Butter lamp
Festival(called Channga Chospa in Tibetan
language),the 15th day of the first month in Tibetan
calendar. Tsering palmo and the villagers danced skorbzhd
(dance hand in hand in a circle) joyously around a vat of
barley wine.
The slogan,"Science and
Technology are the First Productive Forces,"receives
response from everywhere in Tibet. Female science and
technological workers are dedicated to various fields.
Isamchoe Dolam,34,is an excellent example. In 1988 she was
transferred to the Tibetan Plateau Biology Research
Institute attached to the Autonomous Region Science and
Technology Commission to begin her research on the wild
animal resources. Since her specialty is veterinary
medicine.she had great difficulty in doing wild animal
research. But because the Tibetan Plateau is so richly
endowed with wildlife,the area captured her interset.
To investigate the secrets of wild animals,
one must go into their environment .Tsamchoe Doima joined
each field investigation organized by her institute.North of
the Changtant Plateau is a harsh climate. Drinking water is
scarce. The study group often encountered violent snowstorms
and at once point was lost. When snow trapped them in their
tents. They couldn't have hot meals or boiled water for many
days.Tsamchoe Dolma overcame all of these predicaments like
her male counterparts. After four investigations of wildlife
on the Changtant Plateau, the team catalogued 30,022 plateau
animals, of which 28,329 were mammals under state chief
protection.Tsamchoe Dolma's feet had left prints across the
Changtant Plateau,which has an area of 260,000 square
kilometers.
Her theses,"A Winter Research
on Ecology of Tibetan Black-neck Crane,"a collaboration
with her tutor.Professor GuBinyuan,"A Summer Research
on Wild Ungulate Animals in Changtant Area,"completed
with Guo Gangjun and " A General Survey of the nature
Preserve in Vphanbpo County Where the Black-neck Cranes in
Lhungruo Contry Overwinter," provide an important
scientific basis for studying and protecting rare species of
wildlife on the Tibetan Plateau.
At the end of
1993,"A Research on Rare Mammals on the Changtant
Plateau in Tibet," a joint study of the Tibetan Plateau
Resarch Institute of Wild Animals ans the
International Wild Animal Protection Department of
theNew York Institute of Zoology in the United Sates,won
first prize for projects for scientific progress, the fifth
such award given by the Tibet Autonomous Region
government.Eleven Chinese and American scientific and
technical workers,including Tsamchoe Dalma and Professor Gu
Binyuan, won also first place in individual prizes.
There are many qualifled scientific and
technical workers like Tsamchoe Dolma among the community of
Tibetan women.They are making contributions for scientific
and technical progress and the social developmet of
Tibet.And investigation shows that more than 18 percent of
people with senior technical titles in the entire region are
women.
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