Homes, hearts rebuilt 5 years after earthquake
Print Edition
FIVE years ago, Sonam Como survived a devastating earthquake that hit her hometown in the Yushu Tibet Autonomous Region of northwest China’s Qinghai Province.
Sadly, her twins, a boy and a girl, and her home did not.
Today, Sonam lives in an apartment in a new community in Yushu, which was badly hit by the quake that left nearly 3,000 people dead or missing.
At the nadir of her bereavement, she attempted suicide, but her older son, a monk at a local Tibetan Buddhist monastery, saved her.
In May 2012, she gave birth to a second pair of twins, also a boy and a girl.
“The Buddha heard my prayers,” she said.
To date, 79 families who lost their children in the disaster have had or are expecting children, according to Chagxi Yongye, deputy director of the city’s health and family planning bureau.
While the babies have gone some way to healing broken hearts, 1,200 reconstruction projects, at a combined cost of 44.4 billion yuan (US$7.15 billion), have transformed the once remote town of Yushu into a thriving city.
According to the prefecture government, more than 39,000 families from quake-hit regions have moved to new homes that feature Tibetan architectural characteristics. Many, for the first time, now have access to flushing toilets. Also, 94 kindergartens, primary and middle schools and 63 medical centers have been built.
“The old schools didn’t even have playgrounds and now students can enjoy athletics tracks,” said Cering Bamo, a guide at a museum that commemorates the disaster.
In 2010, most locals had never visited a museum, but there are now several at their disposal, including one on Tibetan folk customs and art.
Under the 10-year Beijing-Yushu plan, experts have been dispatched to Yushu to help with infrastructure construction and urban management, while 200 local officials have been on courses, according to Li, who heads the plan.
Catapulted into modern living, many Tibetans who once survived by digging for fungi and herding, now work in the fields of modern farms, car repairs and handicrafts, said Wen Guodong, Party chief of the Yushu prefecture.
Some now run restaurants and inns as tourism has boomed. Yushu is home to two state-level nature reserves: Sanjiangyuan, the cradle of the Yangtze, Yellow and Lancang rivers, and Kekexili, home to several species of endangered wildlife, including the Tibetan antelope, Wen said.
Tang Yunming, principal of a vocational school, said it has offered a hospitality and tourism major since 2012. It also provides oral English classes, a popular subject for students interested in hospitality.
Many young people have adapted well to modern life.
“Clad in robes they perform the Tibetan-style circle dance. Without it, they switch to hip hop,” Tang said.
However, he was keen to note that some traditional majors, including Tibetan language, thangka painting and Tibetan medicine, remain popular.
While life has moved on for some, the pain will never be forgotten.
Sonam said she will never forget her firstborn twins.
“We often meet in my dreams,” she said.
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