Amidst the accusations of China’s belated response to the devastating earthquake that hit the Tibetan area of Yushu in the early hours of April 14, 2010, the downplaying in the Chinese media of the key role that Tibetan monks have played in the rescue efforts and mourning ceremonies, alongside reports of Chinese rescue workers who seem more interested in posing for cameras than in saving lives, there is an inspiring story that transcends it all.
There are few outside of mainland China who know about Tsering Dhondup, the youngest volunteer in the earthquake-hit Tibetan area of Yushu in the Kham-Amdo borderlands in the eastern part of the plateau.
Ten-year-old Tsering saw his house completely flattened by the quake. Since then, he’s been living with his family in a temporary shelter in the local stadium in Jyekundo, the town most affected in the disaster, where 85% of houses like Tsering’s were destroyed. Tsering volunteered to work as a translator for a Chinese medical team who was treating Tibetan survivors. The state-controlled national news channel CCTV, Chinese Central Television, broadcast a report about him that aired on April 17, three days after the quake.
Wearing a baseball cap set backwards on his head and a blue surgical mask, Tsering moves with a jaunty confidence around the emergency medical tent, looking perfectly at home in his new role. He speaks first with an elderly Tibetan woman.
“Where do you hurt?” he asks her in Tibetan, then turns to the Chinese doctor and explains that she has pain in her eye and chest.
He then moves to another bed to translate for a small child. Through the Chinese nurse, Tsering explains the child’s condition and treatment to the mother, who listens to him with rapt attention.
The Chinese nurse explains to the reporter that while the team was setting up the emergency supplies, Tsering had come over and asked them if they were cold. “We said that we weren’t, and then he started helping us to unpack our supplies. Then he came to help us with translation. He’s a really nice kid.” The reporter asks Tsering some questions.
Reporter: It looks like you know all the doctors here.
Tsering: Yes.
Reporter: Do you like them?
Tsering: Yes.
Reporter: Do they like you?
Tsering: Yes.
Rerporter: How do you know they like you?
Tsering: Ummm, when I’m hungry they give me instant noodles, and when I am thirsty they give me mineral water. So I know they must love me.
Reporter: Yes, I like you too. I can see there’s a red ribbon in front of your chest. What does it mean?
Tsering: It means that I’m a volunteer.
Reporter: What does being a volunteer mean to you?
Tsering: Well, it’s like when the elders are saving people who have problems, we kids can’t do much to help with that. So we pick up bits of garbage on the ground of the stadium, and we collect wood so people can boil water.
After the interview, the reporter affectionately pats the boy on the head.
Tsering is then shown handing out bottles of water to Tibetan patients, and performing his tasks as if he’s been doing this for years.
Towards the end of the news segment, the reporter asks Tsering to sing a song. The boy begins to sing a song that is known and loved by Tibetans everywhere. The words were written by the Sixth Dalai Lama 300 years ago when he was being forcibly taken away from his people to China by Mongol soldiers. He died shortly afterwards, and his reincarnation was discovered in the Tibetan region of Lithang in Kham.
“White crane! Lend me your wings
I will not fly far.
From Lithang, I shall return”
At the end of these lines, the young boy bursts into tears. The segment abruptly cuts out with the reporter rather awkwardly trying to comfort him.
With fears that the situation in the earthquake affected area might turn political, Chinese state media spared no time in using Tsering’s natural appeal to put a positive face on the Chinese/Tibetan relationship. He was a guest of honor at CCTV’s earthquake appeal concert that raised 21.75 billion Yuan (well over three billion US dollars). The host asked Tsering why he had cried when he sang the song. With his head down, he answered without a trace of his earlier buoyant innocence. “Because people of the whole nation support us,” he said stiffly. It seems more likely that the song, so culturally familiar, reminded him of what he and his family had lost and the horror of what he had experienced.
However the propagandists might like to spin the story of Tsering Dhondup, there remains at the heart of it all a genuine exchange that is neither essentially Chinese nor Tibetan but simply – human.
The comments beneath the YouTube link reach beyond the jingoistic and vitriolic messages that so often plague postings about Tibet. One of them simply says, “He will become a great person.” Some would say that he already is.
To view the YouTube story, check out the LA YOGA Magazine YouTube channel.
Rebecca Novick is the founding producer of The Tibet Connection radio program, online at: thetibetconnection.org Translation provided by Tenzin Losel.
By Rebecca Novick
