(Continued)

Excluding Tibetan related subjects in public schools is not the only problem.  The even harsher reality is that, many village children simply can not afford going to school.  Even though the government provides free education up till 9^th grade, a great number of children in many remote places of rural China still can not afford education.  The children either have to work to support the family or their families can not afford even the seemingly trivial expenses such as books, school supplies and the living expenses in boarding schools which are often the only type of school in the mountainous regions such as Dechin County.  On average, the families living in a rural area of Dechin only collect an annual household income of less than $300, but it costs at least $70 to send a child to a primary or middle school each year. 

Founding of Puli

On a land that has been steeped in a powerful spiritual tradition for thousands of years, some extraordinary things are bound to happen during a difficult time like this.  In 1997, a villager named Aniu decided to open a school that offers education to children from extremely poor families.  More importantly, his school is going to take on the daunting mission of preserving Tibetan culture. 

Aniu is from a typical Tibetan family in the Foggy Top village.  He himself has never been to school for one single day.  Even though he can not read or write Tibetan, he is a great artist and one of the major performers on local ceremonies where he often recites a poems from the historical literatures passed through the oral tradition.  In his youth, he has ventured east into the Chinese territories of Yunnan and done numerous odd jobs. His experience has taught him that the society did not favor those without education and the uneducated are bound to struggle at the very bottom of the social hierarchy.  He has also done an extended pilgrimage trip all the way to India.  He was greatly pained by the fact that when he reached the Tibetan region in India, he got lost as he could not communicate with his heavy accents, nor could he read any street signs. 

These personal experiences have propelled this extraordinary man to carry out his mission, despite the fact that he had no money and little support.  Initially, he had to sell his family assets against other family members’ will in order to hire a teacher and buy school supplies.  The lamas from a local monastery supported him and loaned him a room.  Hence, in the fall of 1997, the Puli Tibetan School started with three children and one teacher.  previous page    next page