Lhasa: Renowned Italian Tibetologist and explorer Giuseppe Tucci (1894-1984) might have rescheduled his first journey to Tibet if he had known that then the only road out of Diyag, a border township located at the west gate of the region, would be blocked by snow for nearly half a year. He managed to arrive at Diyag on October 2, 1931 after years of preparation, only to find that due to heavy snow, he could not go a step further toward Ngari, his planned destination. After a short stay, he had to go back to Nepal and wait for another time.
Diyag, China’s most-difficult-to-access township, lies in a river valley 20 km east of the China-India border, and 2,000 km west of Lhasa, capital of Tibet Autonomous Region.
Eight mountains towering above 4,000 meters stand between Diyag and downtown Zanda, the county the township is in. In winter, the road through the mountains is blocked by snow, isolating the township from the outside world for four to five months. In summer, it takes residents about eight hours to drive downtown.
Lasting link
But things changed last winter. A section of a new road built at a lower altitude became operational, slashing the travel time from the township to the county seat by half. Tsering Ngodrup, a 24-year-old Tibetan farmer born in Diyag, made the first winter trip out of the township in his life, taking his driving test and getting the long-awaited driving license in January.
“I am swamped by farm work most of the year and could take the test only in winter, the slack season for farming,” he told Beijing Review. Previously, no Diyag resident could access downtown in winter, so the only driving school in Zanda was out of bounds during the slack season. But now, with a road running at the warmer lower altitude, villagers can go out of the township in winter and do whatever they want.
– The Daily Mail-Beijing Review News exchange item
Autumn is the busiest season for Tsering Ngodrup. Since his mother has difficulty in walking and his sister has a hearing impairment, he is the sole breadwinner of the family. They have 130 apple trees, which produce about 2,500 kg of apples a year, and some apricot trees as well. In the past, he had to hire a truck to carry the fruits to town, where he would rent a temporary stand and sell them. It usually took him 15 days to a month to complete the task. The transportation cost took up at least one sixth of the sales income. Regardless of whether all the apples had been sold, he had to head home before the end of November. Otherwise, he would not be able to return home for the whole of winter once the snow began.
Buying winter supplies is another important task. From September, the locals get ready for the winter closure, buying food and clothes, as well as stocking hay for the livestock. “Usually, I would stock 20,000 yuan ($3,105) worth of winter supplies for my family before November,” Tsering Ngodrup said.
What about this winter? “I am not sure yet. Let’s wait and see,” he said. The entire new road is expected to be put into use by the end of this year, which will further cut the travel time to the county seat to two hours. Since the new road is built along the Langchen Zangbo River instead of at the top of the mountains, it will stay open all year round.
Better healthcare
Over 800 people live scattered in the three villages in Diyag. The cold winter months were a trying time for doctors in the Diyag Township Hospital. Ngodrup Dorje, a retired doctor who had worked in the hospital for around 20 years, said he had to stock drugs as massively as possible before November.
In the past winters, critically ill patients could not be sent out to get surgical treatment in time. Having seen many helpless patients suffer from severe illnesses in the past two decades, Ngodrup Dorje became nervous as winter came closer. Now thanks to the improved transportation, such patients can get medical care in time.
Service at the township hospital has also improved. Tsering Drolma, a 56-year-old living in Sibgyi, a village in Diyag, has a leg problem that makes it difficult for her to walk. To go to the township hospital, which is 18 km away, she needed to be accompanied by her children. But in 2019, five new young doctors came to work in the hospital and each was assigned to take care of 30 senior residents or those who have difficulty in walking. Her assigned doctor calls on her regularly to keep an eye on her health. If she needs any health check, the doctor reminds her in advance. If she is ill, the doctor comes to her house to deliver drugs or give an injection. “I have my own family doctor now, like those living in town,” she said.
Unity is strength
Thanks to its average altitude of 3,500 meters and the nearby Langchen Zangbo River, Diyag is an orchard full of apple, pear and apricot trees.
In 1985, Ngodrup Palden, a 78-year-old living in Sibgyi, did some trade with Indian merchants who came through the border pass open at that time. He exchanged butter and three goats for 200 white apricot saplings, planted some of them himself, and shared the rest with other villagers. Today, the village is surrounded by apricot trees.
Apricots are not easy to preserve, so the villagers use the fruit to make wine. Diyag apricot wine is famous for its quality and has been listed as a region-level intangible cultural heritage. However, since the wine is made in small workshops, it had no registered trademark or promotion. Compared with other apricot wines on the market, the price of Diyag apricot wine was much lower, and the annual sales volume depended on how many buyers came to the township.
To increase the added value of the local products and local residents’ income, in 2018 the Central Government earmarked 25 million yuan ($3.9 million) to build fruit processing plants with apricot wine brewing and apple-processing equipment. Technicians from Beijing-based China National Research Institute of Food and Fermentation Industries (CNRIFFI) and Lhasa-based Tibet Academy of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Sciences come to teach farmers how to make fine wine. According to Yu Jiajun, a CNRIFFI technician, by deep processing apricots, the income from the fruit can be increased by 135,000 yuan ($20,970) per hectare.
A year later, all the 120 households in Diyag clubbed together to set up a cooperative for standardized fruit processing, packaging and marketing. When the apples are ripe, the cooperative staff goes to the orchards to collect the fruits. The farmers no longer need to transport their apples to faraway towns and spend a long time selling them. The smaller apples are processed into dry slices, which sell at a better price. “It saves me a lot of time and money,” Tsering Ngodrup told Beijing Review.
By the end of 2018, Diyag had been lifted out of poverty and in the next decade, it will be on Ngari’s tourist map. It will have a tourist service center, an auditorium and luxury hotels. Village folk art teams will perform traditional songs and dances for tourists, which will generate an income for them.
“I am going to buy a pickup truck next year so that it’s easier to restock my grocery,” Tsering Ngodrup said. He opened a grocery last winter.
A development epitome
The growth of Diyag epitomizes the development in Tibet in the past 70 years. This year marks the 70th anniversary of a historic agreement between the Central Government and the local government of Tibet, leading to the region’s peaceful liberation. The democratic reform in 1959 abolished the centuries-old feudal serfdom in Tibet and paved the way for the establishment of Tibet Autonomous Region in 1965.
Tibet has developed quickly since then. In 1951, Tibetan farmers and herdsmen had no means of production or net income and were in debt almost for life. The poverty rate was as high as 80 percent. But at the end of 2019, all of Tibet’s poor population had shaken off absolute poverty. In 2020, the per-capita disposable income of residents reached 21,744 yuan ($3,377).
Talho, Director of the Institute of Social Economy Research, China Tibetology Research Center, told China Today that China’s poverty alleviation achievements, especially in extremely impoverished regions like Tibet, have made great contributions to the global anti-poverty efforts and boosted people’s confidence in the fight against poverty.
Ju Montso, a professor with the School of Economics and Management at Tibet University, however, noted that for Tibetans, the risk of falling back into poverty is still high. “The government should make long-term efforts to consolidate the achievements of poverty alleviation,” he said at the Fifth Tibet Think Tank Forum held in Beijing on May 15.
