Listening to their singing and laughing along the way, I arrived in the area known as Shannan with my Tibetan friends. According to classic Tibetan historical works, the forefather of all the Tibetans was born in a cave in Zetang. He was a child of an ogress and a monkey who was sent down into the world by the Goddess of Mercy. The first Tibetan Palace and monastery as well as a great deal of Tibetan kings' tombs have been found there. That's why the Shannan area is considered the birthplace of the Tibetan nationality.

With a lower sea level than Lhasa and comfortable weather, Shannan is called the "granary" in Tibetan. It was early summer when I arrived and row upon row of wheat and qingke (highland barley) stretched as far as one could see. A good harvest was soon to come.

Deji

Deji is an enthusiastic and capable woman. In 1990, the per mu (equal to 0.0667 hectares) yield of her family's farmland reached 650 kg. And Deji was chosen as a model worker during the National "Learn and Compete" Campaign.

Deji's home is located by the side of an avenue. The red-painted gate of their new house is decorated with beautiful carving. Inside the courtyard is a row of bright and spacious rooms facing south. Tall red posts stand inside the main room and on the cross beams colorful patterns are painted, creating a brilliant Sight. "I didn't know you were coming." Deji said, feeling a bit ashamed at not having tidied up the rooms. But although the house was not completely in order, we could see they were a rich family. Their house consisted of six rooms. The central drawing room alone covered nearly 40m, with Tibetan-style wardrobes and piles of cushions, arranged in a half circle. On either side of the drawing room are Deji and her husband's room and their son's room. A door to the north of the drawing room leads to a shrine where Buddha is worshipped, and where wall hangings and where wall hangings and a wooden box (containing roasted qingke barley flour and grains topped with colored butter sculpture and barley ears, to symbolize a bumper harvest), are kept. We also noticed a pile of broad new cushions and rolls of new cushions and rolls of new Tibetan carpets. The shrine is divided into two rooms, one for Deji's family's use and another specially prepared for visiting lamas.

When Deji opened the doors to the grain barns on either side of the shrine, we saw a number of bins, each 1.5m. in diametre and 2m. Tall. of grain was stored. South of the courtyard is a kitchen, a cowshed and a mill-shed. With the flour-mill they bought, Deji's family processes grain for their fellow villagers for only a small fee.

I know from Deji that their village has placed all farmland under irrigation and currently raises improved varieties of crops. At present the per mu crop of the whole village has surpassed 500 kg. Sowing, irrigation, harvesting and threshing are all done by machines in a systematized way. So all that is left for every household to do on the farmland distributed to them is the field management.

Deji has two children, a daughter and a son. Her daughter went to study in the country's interior in 1986 and through her good marks was enrolled in the Hebei Teacher's Training College in 1990. However, when Deji's son was also accepted by a middle school in the interior, Deji didn't let him go. "My son complains about this and I also regret what I've done, now," Deji said. Each year, the Shannan area sends 200 children to study in the interior. From 1985 to May 1991, 7,600 children were sent from all parts of Tibet with their tuition, clothing, food and lodgings paid by the state government. Being accepted at a middle school in the interior now offers bright prospects for many Tibetan children.

When talking about her daughter, Deji always feels proud. 'She's better than I", she would say. Shen also told me that after her father, a businessman, was killed by bandits, her mother and she, then eight years old, became slaves. They toiled all year long, collecting firewood in winter and weeding in summer. By 1960 when democratic reforms were implemented in Tibet, she and her mother gained their freedom and were provided a house and land. "I most regret that I didn't have the opportunity to study when young," Deji said.

Gesangquzhen

To make up for lost opportunities to study for the people in Deji's generation, many literacy classes for adults have been set up in the Shannan rural area. One of them was opened by a Tibetan woman called Gesangquzhen in kaduo Village, Naidong County. Her class has been warmly welcomed by her countrymen, and she herself won the National Anti-Literacy Prize for Women in 1990. The cup she was awarded holds an honored spot on the Tibetan-style wardrobe in her home.

Gesanguzhen is 40 years old this year and has been studying in the village primary school for several years. She's an active person and is enthusiastic about improving the public welfare. She's been a village cadre for 20 years, and in 1990, was elected as a village director to take care of the well-being of women.

In 1978, Gesangquzhen set up a literacy class in her village. All the illiterate villagers from 15 to 45 years old were encouraged to join in the class. Most of the students were women. Gesangquzhen invited teachers from the village primary school to give lessons every evening, and, as the village had no electricity at that time, Gesangquzhen bought candles with her own money for the class to use during the first year. The second year, she collected funds for the class by organizing young people to participate in highway construction work.

Thought the first year's class was small, after graduating, all of the students felt they had achieved and gained so much. They could keep accounts, read instructions for using farm pesticide and knew more about the outer world. As word of the class spread, more and more women joined. At the end of 1990, altogether 149 people in the village had passed the county's examination and obtained certificates of literacy, 121 of them were women. Now with the exception of only 12 people, 7 of whom are women, all the villagers have learned to read and write. On the basis of this progress in learning, a scientific and agricultural group has been organized. Nine of the 12 members are women. Due to the fact that many men in this village work in other places or are engaged in transportation services, farm work relies mainly on women. This scientific group takes care of seed sowing in spring, prevention and control of plant diseases and the elimination of pests, as well as promoting scientific methods, of farming. Since the establishment of this group, Kaduo Village's agricultural output has continuously increased. For example, the per mu yield of farmland of the 37-year-old Tibetan woman, Labazhuoma, reached 557.5 kg. in 1990 which leaves the average per capita income of her six-membered family at 2,700 yuan.

With a bank loan in 1984, Gesangquzhen bought a big truck and her husband began a shipping service. After several years, they not only cleared off the loan but had an annual income of about five thousand yuan.

Though her mother raised seven children. Gesangquzhen herself has only two sons. She said, "People of our generation don't want so many children. With less children, we can pay more attention to their education and up bringing." Just as Gesangquzhen said, in the countryside in Shannan, I found that although our state government doesn't advocate family-planning there, the Tibetan people's attitude towards having children has changed. Most of the middle-aged and young couples have or want only two to three children.

Cerenzhuoma

In 1982, Cerenzhuoma, a 47-year-old woman, opened the first kindergarten in Zetang Township. In the past ten years, this kindergarten has sent 450 farmers' children to the Shannan First Primary School, a key primary school in that area.

There are 140 children and six teachers at this kindergarten. One of the teachers, Basang, used to be a primary school teacher. Cerenzhuoma encouraged her to come help strengthen the preschool education children were receiving. Basang now teaches advanced Tibetan language classes arith, singing and dancing. The children she's taught not only perform Tibetan songs and dances but also can sing many children's songs in putonghua, standard Chinese and perform Han children's dances. During my visit, I was entertained by these Children at Cerenzhuoma's Kindergarten.

Every day, Cerenzhuoma is with the children. She likes to see their small rosy faces and bright eyes and likes to listen to their clear voices. "What a joy this is!" she said.

This kindergarten has gained great support from the state. Every year, the county Cultural and Educational Bureau allocates funds to it. The township neighborhood committee contributed by giving them two milk cows and four mu of vegetable plots. Cerenzhuoma and the other six women teachers of this kindergarten also help by raising and milking the cows and growing vegetables. They pick up children from one family after another and bring them to the kindergarten every morning; at noon, they heat lunches and make buttered tea for the children; and they send the children home one by one in the evening.

In Tibet, not only do all the peasants enjoy free medical services but all the children go to school free of charge. These are two state policies set up to help the Tibetan nationality develop quickly.

The journey around the countryside of Shannan recalls to mind a Tibetan proverb: "Without a woman's help, a man cannot set up a tent." This is a fact not only in the family but in society as well. I was deeply impressed by the women in Shannan who have already shed yesterday's backwardness, ignorance and poverty and are heading toward tomorrow's world, full of progress and prosperity.