Dainzeng Wangdu, a returned Tibetan compatriot who led wandering life abroad for over 20 years, now lives in Gyaca County, Shannan Prefecture. He has a family of nine, including sons and grandsons.

In 1960 he left Tibet for India, where he worked very hard. He grazed cattle for others and worked in a coal mine. Originally he thought that, as a young man in good health. he would be able to support his family. However many years passed, but his dream did not come true. He led a vagrant life, always su0enng from poverty and hunger. At the end of 1982 he and his family members returned to his native place, Gyaca County, to settle down, bringing along with him only a bedding roll and a scarred heart. The local government had a new house built for him, gave him some land, and provided him with necessary means of production and articles of daily use. Out of gratitude, he said to everyone he met: "After my return to the motherland it was as if I were a parched seed which had been suddenly drenched with sweet dew."

In the past 10 or so years since he settled once more in his homeland, Dainzeng Wangdu has gathered many cherished memories, and done many things that he can be proud of. In 1984 he was lucky enough to be included in a group of returned Tibetan compatriots who were taken on a tour to see with their own eyes the tremendous changes which have taken place in Tibet and in other parts of China. He was deeply impressed. For many years now he has been a deputy to the county people's congress and a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference of Shannan Prefecture. In 1988 he was elected deputy village head, and since 1990 he has served as village head and concurrently chairman of the village's public security committee. His village has been named as an advanced unit for "socialist material progress and cultural and ideological progress" by the county government three years running. The village in which he lives is the remotest village in the township and the villagers are scattered over a wide area. Surrounded by high mountains, it is very hard to get to, as there is no road linking the village with the township. Transportation consists mainly of porters and packhorses. Before 1985 there were less than 300 people in the village, 70 percent of whom relied on relief grain distributed by the government to survive. It can be imagined how hard it was to make this poverty stricken village prosperous. However, Goisam Paintog was not daunted by difficulties. Within two years after he became the village head, he had organized the villagers to build four aqueducts, totaling more than 20 kilometers in length. Consequently, more than half of the local farmland can now be irrigated. Every winter, he gathers all the villagers to collect manure to fertilize the soil. In addition, he has spared no efforts to develop tertiary industry, and tried every means to increase the villagers' incomes. As a result of strenuous efforts, his village reaped bumper harvests of grain for three years running, from 1986 to 1988, and became the leading village in the township.

The villagers' livelihood has been improved, but the village head clearly realizes that in today's society, when science and technology are developing at a rapid pace, people who are uneducated will be left far behind. Therefore he often tells the villagers how important and necessary it is to acquire knowledge. He said. "Though we have enough to eat and wear at the moment, we should keep striving to acquire more knowledge, and especially to ensure that our children get a good education." Under his leadership, in 1993 the villagers volunteered their labor, and donated money and timber to build a school, enabling 22 school-age children to have a place to study.

Dainzeng Wangdu often says that the most important thing is to speak for thc people and do practical things for them. In recent years he has submitted nearly 30 proposals to the county people's congress. He has won praise from the local people for his efforts to help them shake off poverty.