Golden Fall, Sweet Milk

A dawn in August, when the golden sunlight reached the golden roof of the Potala Palace , we left Lhasa for Zhaxue Town of Mozhugongka County. It was harvest season for the plateau. Along the roads, golden waves of ripe Qingkei (highland barley) dancing against the bright blue curtains of the sky and stirring its fresh smell…The beauty of fall and joy of harvest soothed our exhaustion after the long hard journey. We arrived at Qilang Village at noon and with the company of Anuo Town , began our visits to Zhaxi Duobuji's , one of the project families.

Zhaxi Duobujie's was a big family of 14, including his parents, wife, two children and 8 brothers and sisters. The size of the family did not help in dealing with poverty. There had been no livestock or any other source of income besides about 30 mu of crop field, whose produces were used to exchange everyday essentials. To gain more crops, the family worked hard to plant in wild fields and thus enlarged their fields to 40 mu . However, still they could hardly make the ends meet, and even thinking about quality of life was a luxury.

In 2003, Heifer International began its projects in Qilang Village , and the Zhaxi Duobujies was one of the project families. They bought three female yaks with the project loan. For the first time, the family had milk, butter and cheese produced by their own yaks. Tasting the sweetness of real home produces, Zhaxi Duobujie had the idea of raising yaks at a larger scale. Lucky enough for them, the price of aweto rose sharply since 2003 and the brothers and sisters also started working in the cities, which brought the family extra money for buying yaks. Zhaxi Duobujie did not waste any time. After three years, now the family own 20 femal yaks and 8 male ones. They have stable income to buy things and no longer depend on bartering. They have much more spare grains to sell in the market while saving more time and energy for other businesses. Zhaxi Duobujie told us that selling aweto had brought about 20 thousand yuan , plus incomes from grains, livestock and other produces, the family's income could be as much as 40 to 50 thousand this year, which was a lot higher than the average income level in the village.

During our visit, Zhaxi Duobujie's wife warmly served us milk tea and yogurt and the cozy house was filled with the sweetness of milk. Since they had their own yaks, milk products were sufficient enough for their daily consuming so that generous Zhaxi Duobujie often gave extra milk products to his brothers, sisters and relatives. In recent years, the family's life has been improved so much that they bought a tractor last year and a motorbike this year. We even noticed that Zhaxi Duobujie had a mobile phone on him. On leaving his house, we were told by cheerful Zhaxi Duobujie that he would refurbish his home. His confident smile made us feel warm inside.

We left Zhaxi Duobujie for another three project families in Longzhonggang village 20 kilometers away with the Tibetan version of 12 Corner Stones. It was mid-night when we arrived in Lhasa after the visits. The city was glowing and the Potala Palace was magnificent. Indeed we were tired but still fulfill and happy in our hearts, for all those changes happening to project families and all those prospects brought to them by Heifer.

(By Droma Sangmo)