Tibet orphan repays the kindness of teachers at her former school
Print Edition
Kangzho Degyi trained as a lawyer but now teaches Mandarin to second-graders at a school for orphans in her hometown, a Tibetan community in northwest China’s Qinghai Province.
“I love my job. I see the reflection of my old self on the children’s faces,” she said.
Kangzho Degyi lost her parents and two siblings in 1998. The family was on a pilgrimage to a local monastery when the truck they were in overturned. She and her sister Puryang were the only survivors.
Puryang, 16 at the time, was sent to a nunnery at the Gyegu Monastery in their home county of Yushu. In most Tibetan communities, monasteries also serve as schools, where older children learn Buddhist sutras and the Tibetan language.
Kangzho Degyi, who was only 10, was sent to a boarding school for orphans. A straight-A student, she later gained a place at Qinghai Normal University.
Instead of securing a well-paid job in the legal sector, Kangzho Degyi took up teaching at Bayi School for Orphans, her former school.
“The kids need me. They’re all orphans like myself,” she said. “They often call their teachers mom and dad and break into tears when words like parent or family appear in textbooks.”
When the children are older, she will tell them about her own experience.
“I will tell them their strong-willed teacher was once a teary little girl. But our experiences, happy or sad, make us stronger,” she said.
The school is one of nine welfare homes for orphans in Yushu Prefecture. It provides food, lodging and education for 516 children, mostly Tibetans from across the 267,000 square-kilometer prefecture.
It was initially opened in 1993 to teach orphans traditional Tibetan medicine, as the predominantly Tibetan area desperately needs health care.
“A severe shortage of medical workers is one of the reasons why there are so many orphans in Yushu,” said school principal Nyima Rigzin.
Today, the revamped campus has new classroom buildings, tidy dorms, a cafeteria and a large playground. This “home and school in one” for the orphans teaches primary and middle school courses, and also provides vocational training for older children.
Nyima Rigzin and the 38 teachers do their best to make the children feel at home. Each of them is in charge of 10 to 13 students, tending to their needs and playing a parental role.
During summer and winter holidays, children who have no relatives to stay with often go home with their teachers.
“Most Tibetan schools have an additional six-week holiday for the worm fungus harvest,” said the principal. “But these children have no family and nowhere to go.”
The school uses the annual holiday for a camping trip. “The children all stay in tents and try their luck at finding the fungus, too. Most of the time, they have fun, singing, dancing and playing football.”
The children’s tents are all brightly colored. “When I placed orders for them, I deliberately avoided the simple blue ones that were used as makeshift homes and classrooms after the 2010 quake,” Nyima Rigzin said.
That quake orphaned more than 400 children in Yushu, about half of whom are now attending Nyima Rigzin’s school. “We try to avoid picking their old wounds,” the principal said.
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