Orphan Children‘s Villages in Eastern Tibet Kham und Amdo Tadra-Projekte e.V.

TRAVEL TEPORT 2008

“Warm greatings to all our Sponsors”!

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2008 was an important year for the Tadra

project and for all of Tibet.

As you will have seen in the media, March of this year saw an uprising of the Tibetan people against the occupying Chinese forces. According to international estimates, some 250 Tibetans were killed in these troubles and 10,000 were taken pri-soner, while many thousands have gone missing. The uprising was triggered by a small demonstrati-on of a number of monks and nuns in Lhasa, who took to the streets on 10 March.

This date marks the anniversary of the last despe-rate uprising of the Tibetans in 1959 against the Chinese occupation. It was brutally repressed, and led to the flight of hundreds of thousands of Tibeta-ns into exile in India, including His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Since then Tibetans the world over remember this day with a political demonstration – as was the case in Lhasa in March. The situation escalated after the reaction against the monks‘ de-monstration was of a violence out of proportion to the circumstances, for China wished to give an un-mistakable sign shortly before the Olympics, desi-ring to show itself to the world as a progressive, sta-ble country, and any expression of discontent was like a thorn in Peking‘s side that could not be tole-rated. Once the Tibetan people became aware of the military‘s harsh action not even the amassed tanks could hold them back. The uprising spread to the whole of Lhasa and finally throughout Tibet, right to the furthest nomadic regions.

In Dawu, too, several thousand people took to the streets to demonstrate. Here too the military had orders to retaliate in force, without heed for the

consequences. The soldiers fired indiscriminately into the crowd, injuring several people, ten dangerously. In Tongku, not far from Dawu, the de-monstrators were still more unfortunate: 17 people died on the spot under the spray of the military‘s bullets. After these events Tibet was completely cut off from the outside world, and all telephone, fax and Internet connections were cut. For a long time we had no idea whether our Children‘s Village had been involved in the troubles or not. Strangely, we were able to contact our second Children‘s Village in Golok by telephone, when we learnt that all was well in the first village in Dawu. Thank God our children and staff had not participated in the de-monstrations, or we would now have a serious pro-blem. But we have still not been able to make contact with our first Children‘s Village.

Well aware that we would not get a visa for Tibet before the Olympic Games, we chose to make our applications for our annual journey to Tibet in aid of the project after the Olympics, but our applica-tion was refused with no explanation. Our German friends, on the other hand, who had put in their ap-plication at the same time, obtained their visas without difficulty. Later we learnt that nobody with a Tibetan name in their passport was granted a tra-vel permit in 2008, even if they were American or European citizens.

For this reason, Christine Leonhardt, Duke Eber-hard von Württemberg, Christian Herrmann and Dr Siegfried Bücherl have written this year‘s Travel Report for us. Christine Leonhardt and Herzog Eberhard are long-term promoters of the Tadra project and are familiar with the children‘s villages since their journey there in 2006.

I should first like to mention that our five boys in the Thangka painting school have completed their

Dear Sponsors,Dear Tadra Project Supporters,

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training and left the children‘s village with much feeling last summer. They have joined a group that receives painting commissions from all over Tibet to work in the monasteries, for example. In this way the students are able to progress under the supervi-sion of an experienced teacher and earn their living at the same time.

Unfortunately, there is no experienced English tea-cher at the children‘s village at present. Sandra, who had been there since the summer of 2007 and had spontaneously decided to remain a further year in the first village, had to leave Tibet before the riots of March, for China was determined to root out any potential trouble spots before the beginning of the Olympic Games. Since then we have been forbid-den to send any teachers from Europe to the village Curiously, this ruling applies only to Kham, where-as teachers from abroad can continue to work in Golok. Tashi, who worked for us as housemother

before going to Lhasa, has come back to us again in the first Children‘s Village: she has studied English for three years and now functions as our English te-acher. While her English is not perfect, we have not found anyone who is better qualified.

This year, thirty new children were admitted to each of the two children‘s villages.

Mrs Lissy Bach has sponsored a home for old peo-ple in Tibet, but it has not yet been possible to build it on account of the unrest. Kham is a more suitable location for an old-age home than Amdo, but the authorities there are slow to issue a written authori-zation. Much distrust reigns at the moment. On the other hand we have obtained an authorization to build the home in Golok, where the authorities are somewhat easier-going and more accessible than in Kham. And so we hope to start construction in 2009, either in Kham or Golok.

Group picture of the students of the Thangka painting class

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Some of the master works by the Thangka painting students

German Tibet Aid is again supporting a number of projects this year, sponsoring in particular a family home in Golok.

Beat Renz and his Partner Andreas Läderach have financed a further family home in Golok through their company Focus Discount AG.

Once again I would like to express my very warmest thanks this year to all of you who promote our pro-ject.

Lobsang Palden Tawo

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Preparing the journeyThe planning of the journey is a story in itself. After we had booked our flights earlier in the year, seri-ous unrest occurred in Tibet, and if that were not enough, there were a number of earthquakes too. We were relieved to learn from Palden that the children‘s villages had not been affected. But we be-gan to doubt whether our journey would be at all possible. A few days before our planned departure we learned that Palden and Choenyi Tawo had not been granted a visa. This was of course very sad for all concerned, and at the same time we realized that it was important for us go, to show that we had not

Daily life in the Dawu Children‘s Village

Travel Report �008 by Christian Herrman and Christine Leonhardt

Two years after our first visit to open the

school in Golok in summer 2006, we took

off once again to visit the two Tadra chil-

dren‘s villages, thus keeping our promise to

the children.

forgotten the children‘s villages and were ready to travel there even when times were bad. In the end, out of the original fifteen or so participants, only five were able to make the journey: Beat Renz from Switzerland, and our party from Germany: Herzog Eberhard von Württemberg, accompanied by Dr Siegfried Bücherl, a dentist, my husband Christian Herrmann and myself.

The journey to Dawu was quite without incident – something we would never have imagined given all the previous difficulties. Julo, a member of the Ta-dra staff from Chengdu, was at the airport to greet us with the driver. Palden helped us to communi-cate by mobile telephone from Germany: we were extremely moved by all the trouble he took for us. That very evening at supper we met Beat Renz who had flown in from Switzerland. We got on well from the start and enjoyed his company.

After an early start, we met the twelve Tadra high school students around noon in Dartsedo. This was a happy moment for us, and we still remembered several of the children. Namka, for example, who had been of great help to us as translator two years

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earlier, and Tenzin Drapa, who proudly told us that the two of them now attend the so-called “tourism class”, into which only the best students are accepted. Or Sonam Choeden, the girl who my husband had particularly taken into his heart. She wanted to be a teacher and was studying Tibetan and Chinese. The children proudly showed us around, pointing out the sign, “Tibetan Provincial School” at the entrance. They explained how their days were organized, with studies programmed from six o‘clock in the morning until ten at night. The students seemed happy and it was very clear that they enjoyed going to this school. They were of course all sad that Palden and Choenyi had not been able to come. They looked at the flyer that Beat had designed for Switzerland with great in-terest, showing photographs of some of them. We decided to leave early, and later discovered that this was the right decision, for road works slowed us down considerably. In Ra-nga-kha the children of the middle school greeted us with many Khataks (good-luck scarves), but after taking many photos, and with tears in our eyes, we had to continue on, much too soon for our liking.

Arrival at the first Children‘s Village We came to the Children‘s Village at Dawu around ten o‘clock at night, to a hugely warm reception. There is no way we can describe our joy at seeing all our friends again. On the very first day the school director, together with some gentlemen from the education authority, showed us the school stati-stics: the Tadra school held fourth place out of 25 schools of the district. The best results were in the Tibetan classes, followed by English, Chinese and mathematics. Our classes figured in the “Top Ten” in all subjects! Needless to say, this gave us enor-mous pleasure. When we came to speak of the earthquakes everyone was amazed that mention was made of them outside the country. They told us that the quakes had been quite palpable, and that they all had to sleep outside in tents for several nights. Fortunately no damage occurred. We were greatly helped in these conversations by Tashi, the young Tibetan English teacher, who translated for us. We made our first contacts with the children during our visit around the village: their English had improved in many cases since our last visit two

With the students of Ra-nga-kha

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king up new tricks. I was very pleased to hear that all the warts she had had on her hands when we were last there had now completely disappeared; Dorjee Wangmo, whose English is very good, and Tashi Dawa, who has grown enormously; the little mistress of the skipping rope – Lobsang Tsepal – who is also features in our calender; Yoyo and her pretty sister Tashi Choetso, whom we had visited at her grandmother‘s before she came to the Village, in extremely reduced circumstances. They are both blossoming beautifully here and seem very happy. We recognized many of their faces, without any special memories, but some of them were known to us only from hearsay and we now met them for the first time, such as the four nomad children menti-oned in last year‘s report. Monlam, the “baby”, can now walk and is the darling of the village family. Jampa, the village manager, who probably saved his life, often carries him around or drives around with him on his motorbike. Monlam holds tightly onto the two side mirrors, with his feed bottle in his teeth, a pretty picture.

years earlier, and the English lessons by the volun-tary teachers, of whom we had met Sandra Busch and Thomas Gutersohn, had really left their mark. With the help of our mobile telephone Palden was able to speak to Jampa, the head of the village, who was very unhappy with the trying conditions of the moment. Telephone communications had become difficult since the start of the unrest, and indeed we were no longer able to telephone out after the first two days. The very first evening the children and the house-mothers offered us a dance in the school play-ground. The children wore their colourful Tibetan costumes, making a wonderful picture against the beautiful evening sky. I am always very moved when almost a hundred people dance in a circle to the melodious Tibetan music. The children were quite excited and becoming more and more famili-ar. We recognized a lot of their faces. They had of course grown considerably over the two years of our absence, for example Drubdrel, who had al-ways been rather impish and was continually thin-

A hearty welcome at the Children‘s Village

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Jamba und Monlam

The painting sagaBeat Renz was only able to spend two days in the Village, but he was enormously active and won over the children‘s hearts in no time at all. There were many tears when he left. He took each meal in a different house, an excellent way of getting to know all the children in such a short time and to take photos of them. On the eve-ning before his departure we handed out fresh app-les, coloured pencils and paper in the houses and

asked the children to draw a picture. The result sur-passed anything we could imagine. The children were very enthusiastic and produced wonderfully colourful and imaginative drawings. Beat intends to donate these pictures to the sponsors of the As-sociation in Switzerland. He sparkled with ideas like this, and it was most stimulating to talk with him. He also told us of his frustration with the fact that a container he had filled with useful things for the Village with much help from other people could not now be transported to China. Customs regula-tions are very strict, and if someone has an idea how we can get around them..., please let us know!

On the eve of Beat‘s departure the village gong sounded, and the children gathered to put on their Tibetan clothes. With this we knew that other visi-tors were in the offing: Herzog Eberhard accompa-nied by Siegfried Bücherl, otherwise known simply as Sigi, a dentist by profession. As usual, both of them were given the warmest welcome by all the village, with cries of pleasure and offering of Kha-taks . The ritual greetings; “Khyerang tso pheb pa gassu, gassu” (We are happy to see you again) could probably be heard in all the hills around!

the children‘s dance

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A tour of the village The next day we all came together for a tour from house to house. We saw the new kitchen, which had been enlarged and was now much brighter and friendlier in appearance. It is much roomier, and offers more storage space and work areas. A smoke and steam exhaust system has also been installed, and functions very well. Tashi the English teacher told us that new slate slabs were needed for the roof over the wood storage area. The pig pen also has had a new wall built and the greenhouses are in good condition and richly planted with vegetables that are growing well. Unfortunately, the roof shee-ting was torn to pieces by the wind and needs re-placing. We discussed various possibilities of repai-ring the buildings. If new sheeting were installed, it would make sense to put shutters on the windows to prevent the wind from blowing in. We also found a battered metal walking bike in the playground which looked rather dangerous. Jampa immediate-ly repaired it at our request. Otherwise all the buil-dings and installations we have seen are in very good condition. The animal stock had been aug-mented by a merry bunch of chickens and three dogs. The duck whose life I had reprieved from the butcher two years before is still happily alive toge-ther with the other ducks. The dogs even follow the

The new enlarged kitchen

children to school, offering them the benefits of “animal assisted learning”, for which there are many positive research results. And with his usual enthu-siasm, Christian carried out minor repairs on the electrical circuits and the sanitary appliances.

Beat‘s departureThe next day Beat went to see Jampa the village ma-nager to take his leave of him. We were sitting com-fortably eating lunch when suddenly his car drove away, and for a moment we thought he had left without saying goodbye, not like him at all. But then he came running up the stairs, explaining that he had sent his driver away because Jampa felt he was being overcharged. And then we heard the sad but beautiful school song that we now inevitably associated with someone‘s departure. All the child-ren stood in line and said their goodbyes to Beat saying “See you next year!”. Some were in tears – it was heartbreaking, and he had only been there two days. I tried to explain to them that Beat firmly in-tended to come back next year. On the way to Chengdu he made a stopover in Ra-nga-kha to visit the students there, staying overnight so as to be able to spend more time with them.

Life in the Village We spent a few more days with the children, played with them, helped them with their English, and told one another stories of our experiences and ob-servations. Eberhard too was happy to be here. The children hung around him a lot, for he was full of fun and always thinking up new games. Sigi clearly

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the journey was interrupted most abruptly, for the road was blocked for several hours by a huge lands-lide. When we got away again we adored our jour-ney through this beautiful country. Towards eve-ning we had what was one of the most moving experiences of the whole trip: in a poor village we picked up a new pupil from an extremely filthy school, a six-year-old girl named Yumtso. She had been a full orphan for some six months and until then no-one had been found who could take her to the Children‘s Village. The little girl was wrapped up in a thick coat and sat between my husband and me. She sat there, stiff with fear, completely unre-achable. I took her hand and tried to imagine what was going on for her: strangers who arrived in a car, bundled her up and dumped her between two long-nosed people who spoke no Tibetan. From this day on nothing will be the same for her: she has no idea whether it will be good or bad, a journey into the unknown....

It was growing dark and we were a only little more than half way to Golok, so we decided to overnight in Panma, a small district capital. With the help of the very kind lady in charge of the education aut-hority, Thubten Nyima was able to find us a hotel at this late hour. Young Yumtso was passed on to Tashi, who looked after her quite touchingly, and was rewarded in the night by being called “Ama” by the child, her way of saying “Mummy”. The next day we picked up another child from a school, this time a seven-year-old boy called Kungyi. He too sat between us, but he was quite unperturbed. He loo-ked out of the window with interest and enjoyed his drink of lemonade. It was easier for him than for Yumtso, because he knew that he would find his brother again in the Children‘s Village at Golok. On and on we drove through this gorgeous mountain scenery, when suddenly out of nowhere a wolf jum-ped out in front of the car. We had also seen a wolf in a river valley on our last journey and had been

felt very well in the Children‘s Village, and showed himself to be very sensitive to the children, and not only as a dentist. He added radish salad and fried potatoes to our regular menus and drank Chinese beer with much relish, even though it was not his favourite white beer.

One evening when we were sitting together a strange incident occurred: we were deep in conver-sation when suddenly we saw smoke creeping out of the lower level towards us through the gaps in the wooden floor. We seriously began to think that the house was on fire, but then the men went down-stairs and discovered the cause: one of the boys had an ear infection and the others were trying to heal it by fumigation, a typical Tibetan form of treat-ment. All was well again after a good airing, but the boy‘s painful ear remained.

Visit to Golok At 5.30 a.m. sharp the children began to sing, and once again the departure was heart-wrenching and tearful. Thubten Nyima, the village manager from the second school at Golok, had come two days be-fore to drive us there. After a journey of two hours

Christian surrounded by the children

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told that it was a lucky symbol. The meadows were covered with a carpet of deep-blue gentian and two nomad women served us delicious yak yoghurt in squeaky clean china bowls. The mountains already had their first covering of snow.

We arrived at the Children‘s Village in Golok around noon, the children standing in line to greet us. Thubten Nyima, the village manager, introduced us to the teachers and housemothers, with whom we spent some very pleasant evenings with much sin-ging over the next five days. Because quite a few more adults spoke some English here, understan-ding between us came more easily. Among the housemothers was a face we recognized: Delhamo, whom we had got to know two years earlier in Kham. She was visiting the carpet weaving class there. How fine that her own experience has led her to work with orphan children.

We were immediately struck by the enormous growth of the Children‘s Village: the handicraft school, the Lissy-Bach Community Hall, and two two-family houses, one of which was under construction two years earlier. The number of children had increased about threefold, and there were now three separate classes. The many new ar-rivals who were already there waiting for the new house to be finished were readily recognizable by their shaven heads, for most of the children brought lice with them when they arrived at the village. Our Kungyi also suffered this fate, accepting it with much dignity.

Our days in Golok Our few days in Golok passed by very quickly, with a number of highlights: the greatest of these was the school celebration, held in the beautiful and well-equipped Lissy-Bach Community Hall. The village manager Thubten Nyima had spared no pains to

organize a perfect evening, just as he does every-thing with great conscientiousness and commit-ment. But what was special that evening were the children, who gave virtually professional perfor-mances with enormous pleasure. There were dances, songs, poems and little sketches. We also had jobs to do, such as presenting prizes and gifts to the students, teachers and housemothers. And of course we had to sing along too. For lunch we sat in the meadow in a large circle in the sun – the whole village family including the two geese. After the meal the children kept wandering up to us to play games. Kungyi and Yumtso had settled in well, but Yumtso still had quite a serious look about her. Then once when I was watching her at play I suddenly heard her peal out loud in laugh-ter. It was of course Eberhard with his infectious fun-loving nature who had made her laugh. I was thrilled to see how quickly such a change can occur here.

Choepa, the director of the education authority, in-vited us visitors and the teachers to a meal. We had met him at the school‘s inauguration ceremony two years before. He is a very kind man and there is no way not to drink and talk a lot when one is with him. Jampa told us that like himself and Palden Tawo, Choepa was an orphan, and this gave him much sympathy for the Tadra Children‘s Village,

A temple on the road Golok

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which he willingly supported.

DepartureSoon the time came round to take our leave again of these happy children, the friendly housemothers, the nice young teachers, the kind village lama and the pleasant cook, for whom nothing was ever too much trouble. On the last day she cooked us huge delicious momos (traditional dumplings). Thubten Nyima had done everything possible to make our visit a pleasant one and taken pains to find a lot of information for us in English.

Like the last time, this visit greatly enriched us. It was good to see that despite the difficult times eve-rything was going well in the children‘s villages.

Back home, I sometimes close my eyes and see a picture in my mind: I am sitting on a pass in Golok with a view of the holy snow mountain. Prayer flags are fluttering in the wind above my head, the air is clean and bright, the landscape endless. I feel very calm and send out my wishes on the wind: fortune and blessings for Tibet! Fortune and blessings for the Tadra children‘s villages! Fortune and blessings for us and all beings!

Christine Leonhardtand Christian Herrmann

The Lissy-Bach community hall

The Golok Children‘s Village grows

A dance performance

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My first time in Tibet, an unforgettable

experience. This is how it came about.

One day Eberhard told me that he was flying to Tibet. I had already heard about the orphans‘ homes there and had always wanted to help in some way. When I asked if I could perhaps ac-company him, his answer was a hearty “Yes, of course!”. It was as simple as that. Eberhard took charge of getting the visa, my wife Hildegard the flight tickets, and off we flew to Chengdu.

We arrived in Chengdu exactly on time at 12 o‘clock on 8 September. One night in the Hotel National, a storm in the night, but the air was so thick that the lightning was hardly visible. The next morning at six we took off for Kham, where the first children‘s home is located, arriving in the late afternoon. We were beautifully welcomed by the children and their carers. I had never expe-

rienced anything like it, and I really only took in its grandeur when I saw Christine and Christian‘s pictures.

Room allocation: I got a large four-bed room just for me alone, with generous bathrooms and toi-lets. Everyone gathered in the community room for the reception. The tea with milk and butter was not exactly to my taste. Entertainment in German, English with translation into Tibetan, with hands and much laughter.

One evening, a dance performance, all very atmo-spheric, and outside a storm that kept interrup-ting the electricity. But no-one was bothered by it, the children continued to sing and dance without the aid of a stereo set. Going back to my room af-terwards through the huge puddles was like an obstacle course, and suddenly I felt two strong hands take my arms on either side, and I was car-ried dryshod to my door. A great unexpected help, without which I would have got my feet very wet.

Tibet by Sigi

A lesson in dental hygiene! “Can those teeth be real? ?”

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Thank you!

The warmth of these children is indescribable. Wherever you stand or go you are surrounded, hugged, taken by the hand and led to play or eat. They are full of love, extremely friendly, and un-believably appreciative when one devotes time to them. Communication through English also works quite well: there is always someone there to help. I was particularly fascinated by the behaviour of the animals together. It is quite unusual to see se-veral cocks with their hens on good terms with one another. And that in the company of ducks, dogs, occasional pigs - a lovely healthy world. The warmth of the human inhabitants of the village has carried over to the animals, or vice versa...

At the dentist‘sThe dental examinations, which were my primary reason for coming, were an experience in them-selves. I had brought some mirrors, probes, twee-zers, forceps and injection material. One evening we all designed the record forms, and Chrischi copied them, Christine filled them out while the children were being examined, and Eberhard took each corresponding photo “record form with sub-ject”. In this way all the inhabitants of the home

were photographed in turn. The condition of the children‘s teeth impressed me enormously, almost no caries, except in the case of the monk. I was also fascinated by the huge conical tooth one of the girls had exactly between the two incisors. The moon phase being right, we extracted this tooth first, as well as a troublesome milk tooth in ano-ther of the girls. The two extractions were both performed without incident.

Other unusual findings were in two girls, one aged nine, the other eleven, in whom 28 perma-nent teeth had already completely broken through. In all my thirty-five years of dental practice I have never experienced anything like it. Also remarka-ble was the degree of early plaque formation. The next time I come I will bring a portable plaque and calculus remover.

After everybody had been seen in three days, it was time for the dental hygiene programme. The whole village gathered in a classroom, and the co-lourful toothbrushes I had brought with me were distributed. On the bIackboard I showed how teeth get dirty, how to clean them properly and what happens if this is not done. The right way to clean the teeth was demonstrated, and everybody tried it. Christian first translated into English and then Tashi into Tibetan. Everybody was very at-tentive, and finally we handed out little tubes of toothpaste. Our departure was just as heartening and friend-ly as when Beat left. We drove in two cars to the home at Golok, where we were warmly welcomed once again. The only animals there were two gee-se, but it was they that had served as sentinels in ancient Rome. The two homes were very diffe-

Working together on the dental examination

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rent, from their managers to the materials used in their construction, but both had a fascinating beauty.

The dental examination showed the children‘s teeth to be in much poorer condition. The village diet could not be to blame, for the home in Golok had only existed for two years. An unknown fac-tor is how the children were fed before they came there. Once when eating supper in the town, I saw how a very small child was given Cola to drink. My dental care demonstration exactly mirrored the one we had carried out in Kham, and the new toothbrushes and toothpaste were quickly tried out. After the midday meal, eaten in common, the children conscientiously brushed their teeth. In the end Thubten Nyima confided a whole bag of sweets to us, with a request to make them disap-pear...

One rainy afternoon, our tried-and-tested team,

Eberhard, Christian, Christine and myself, wor-ked together to remove 26 teeth and root remains in 18 children. We had our hands full, keeping the curious eyes away in addition to the dental work. I left the forceps there, thinking I might need them again on the next visit.

Thubten Nyima drove us to the airport at Siling. This world of happy, loving people was a wonder-ful experience, and I hope I was of some little help. I came back home from this splendid country a different person, and look forward to flying back there again.

A proud patient with her examination results

A brave little patient

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Two years ago, in August 2006, I visited the

two children‘s villages of the Tadra Project to

inaugurate Diane House in Golok in honour

of my mother. When the time came to leave,

I had a very moving moment.

Sitting in the car at the time Tsultrim, the Thangka painting teacher, had taken my hand and with tears in his eyes asked me whether I would come back. I gave him my word of honour: I would come back, not next year, I would come back.

Now two years have passed and I am very happy and grateful to be on the way to the children‘s homes again. It was sad that Palden and Choenyi were not able to travel with us. But the four musketeers, Chri-stine, Christian, Sigi and Eberhardare on their way to Tibet from Stuttgart and Oberviechtach. Sigi‘s mission was a full dental examination of all the children, and he was extremely happy with this task. Christine‘s, Christian‘s and my task was to support Palden‘s and Choenyi‘s work on the spot by our visit to the two children‘s homes, given that they were

unable to be there. My second mission was a matter of the heart that had been entrusted to me on the way in France. On 13 July 2008 I had received in Li-sieux from the bishop Bischof and the Pope‘s secre-tary a relic of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux which I was to take with me to Tibet and give to the children‘s village in Golok. Both the relic and myself were blessed in Lisieux to ensure us a safe journey there and back. Relics of Saint Thérèse are carried all over the world in a shrine to strengthen the faith, but the Saint had never been brought to Tibet. For me she is also a paton saint for the children, since she was a child when she experienced her faith, and I felt it important to bring a reinforcement of love for the children.

We were welcomed with much joy in Dawu by the children, the teachers and carers, and I was very moved that some of the children remembered me. The Thangka teacher took me in his arms with tears in his eyes and was happy to be here again.

As I was able to observe, there was a very high mi-litary and police presence in the children‘s village and around it in comparison with 2006. A small mi-litary garrison is stationed in Dawu and police sta-tions have sprung up on all corners of the town. We naturally attracted notice and were shadowed by two men who followed us at a respectable distance and observed our movements. A police station had been build not far from the monastery from which the whole of it could be controlled. Sadly, the time came to leave here once again, and my heart aches when the children take leave of us with their songs, hang a scarf around our necks and hug us with tears in their eyes. We travelled on in two vehicles to Golok. It was very noticeable that in comparison with 2006 military and police check points had been set up at almost all the major road

A JOURNEY TO Tibet by H.R.H. H. Eberhard Herzog von Württemberg

Eberhard and Sigi on their arrival

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forks. One police check was particularly thorough with our papers: they were quite unable to read our German passports, but they perused our Tibetan friends‘ papers several times before they finally let us drive on. We we welcomed in Golok amid much song and waving scarves and I was simply happy to be here once again.

In Golok we made a tour of the new buildings with Thubten Nyima and explained to the Chinese fore-men what was lacking in the construction and what needed to be corrected. As in Dawu we examined, recorded and photographed the children‘s teeth here too. There were major dramas among our little ladies, who were very fearful and at first refused to be treated with the syringe.

Once again there was a festive supper in the town together with the local school authorities. The child-ren gave wonderful dance and song performances, and we returned the compliment by singing a Ger-man canon. Our excursion to the holy mountain, where we found much calm and peace, will remain

in my memory. When we got back from the moun-tain we brought the relic, the picture and the woo-den statue of Saint Thérèse together with the child-ren to the recreation room in Diane House, where they were put for the protection of all the children of the village. Together with the relic I brought a quite special scarf: in 2006 I met H.H. the Dalai Lama, on which occasion he offered me a blessed Khatak, which I had kept until then as a small trea-sure. As soon as I planned my journey to Tibet, I knew where this scarf should be. I took it with me and used it to wrap up the statue of Saint Thérèse. So now Diane House contains a patron saint for the the children and a memento of her sainthood. In this place the children will always find strength on their way to a happy future.

My thanks go to all the children who won my heart with their wonderful young energy, their littlesmi-les and their games and made my stay in the villages so memorable.

Your Eberhard

Eberhard playing with the children

18

Tired and exhausted we arrived at the

TADRA village at half past ten at night, but

when the children welcomed us with their

smiling faces all the strain was soon forgot-

ten.

They were all lined up in a row and sang beautiful Tibetan songs in welcome. I recognized some of their faces from pictures that other visitors had shown to me. Because it was already quite late the children soon had to go to bed, and so we spent the rest of the evening with the housemothers, the tea-chers and the head of the Tadra village.

What did these children possibly have to endure during their early childhood, how much trouble did they have to go through? Each of the 250 child-ren in the Tadra village has his or her own story to tell. Their stories, which I had read about in the re-ports or which other people had told me, gave me

much food for thought. Now here I was standing in front of these children, and of course I wanted to give them whatever I could. Not only the material things I had brought with me. Much more than that, I wanted to give them a piece of myself. But in the end it was the children who taught me a good many lessons of life, and by the time I returned to Switzerland I had gained a lot of new experience.

Unfortunately I was only able to spend three days in the Tadra village, so I tried to maximize my time so as to spend as much time as possible with the children. I got up quite early and took each meal in a different house, where between ten and fifteen children would eat together with their housemo-ther. Although we could not communicate with words, we immediately understood one another without a problem.

A special experienceOne morning I got up to visit a house where fifteen girls lived. Spontaneously they invited me to break-fast. Like every morning, there were Momos, a tra-ditional Tibetan dumpling, and tea for breakfast. We sat in the unheated room around the table on two benches that did not look very stable to me and the girls looked at me with their eyes full of expec-tation. Just beside me, looking rather ashamed, the-re sat a very young girl, who suddenly reached out for my hand and held it for a while. After breakfast the girls stood up and each wordlessly accomplis-hed a task that had previously been assigned to her. Some took the dishes and washed them. Others cleaned the floor. The girls without a particular job helped the smaller ones to get dressed and combed their hair. In no time everything was clean and they were all ready for school. To thank the girls for this special morning I had spent with them, I wanted to give each of them a ball-pen as a present. Thinking about this now I realize that this futile gift served more to satisfy my materialistic Western ego rather

How the Tadra children changed my life by Beat Renz

Beat Renz‘s arrival

1�

than to meet their needs and desires. I didn’t feel at ease at that moment and the experience will remain in my mind. Each of the girls waited patiently for her new ball-pen and said thank you very politely. At that very moment I was convinced that in Swit-zerland a situation like this would have turned out differently: it would not have happened without je-alousy, envy or tension. But no such feelings occur-red in the Tadra community. At the end, one pen was left over. I asked which girl had not received her pen, but none responded. They were all happy with the one pen they already had and nobody as-ked for a second one. I didn’t know what to do with the remaining ball-pen, when suddenly a two-year old boy reached out for the pen and grabbed it. “Ama” he cried and ran to the housemother in or-der to deliver the last pen to her.

On my way back I intended to visit some of the high-school students living in another village. Be-fore my departure some of the children gave me letters addressed to these students, whom they call their brothers and sisters. They put the only present in the envelopes they had received for a long time: the ball-pens I had just given them. What Europe-an six-year-old would have had such a thought?

Relative values and absolute happiness...For the whole three days I spent there, I did not see a single dispute or quarrel. The children treat each other in a very respectful and kindly manner. I have

never seen so many children living together so hap-pily. There is no doubt that the housemothers and the other members of the crew do a very good job in keeping the harmony among the kids, and I am very grateful to them.

Once more I understand that material belongings do not offer us more happiness, rather they disgui-se the way to real happiness. It is true that life in the Tadra village is very simple to our minds, but living there is probably the greatest gift the children have ever received. No need to fight any more every day for a place to sleep or for food. The Tadra village offers the children a home, food, clothing and a so-lid education, combined with a lot of love. I felt deep gratitude among the children. My decadent “problems” vanished completely during my stay in the village. Since my return to Switzerland I have often asked myself how I could bother about this and that before I had this experience.

The many special moments I was able to share with the children completely changed my values in a mere 60 hours. The children and the experiences I had together with them have been an enormous enrichment and a motivation for me to pursue my commitment the Tadra children. They give a pur-poseful meaning to my life.

Dear children in Dawu, thank you for everything. I will be back!

Beat Renz

Urgyen Lhakyi 2007, shortly before she came to the village

Urgyen Lhakyi 2008, September 2008

You can help the Tadra project by purchas-ing photographs, the calender, etc.

Tibet‘s children - A birthday calender I would like to recommend from my heart our birth-day calender (A3 format), with photos and design by H.R.H. Herzog Eberhard von Württemberg and other friends of the Tadra Project. A birthday calendar can also be used as a regular appointments calendar for any year, as the days of the week are not shown.

Th e cost of the calender is 19.95 euros plus 4.95 euros for post and packing.

TenzinAn experienced story-teller and speaker, Tenzin off ers her talent and knowledge (in English, German, Swiss German, French, Tibetan) for a successful event.

Tenzin tells stories from the “magic corpse” for child-ren, adolescents and adults, which she has written her-self according to her parents transmission. She will also sing Tibetan songs for you.

100% of her fees go straight to the DEMIGH-Founda-tion (Swiss Tadra Project), tencla@citycable.ch

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Tenzin Drongshar-Frapolli

Trinkhor Vol. IIIRecorded in 2006 at the Hansa Studio in Bonn. Th is album contains 13 brand new songs, a synthesis of Tibetan melodies and western pop music.

Trinkhor Vols. I & II, produced in the nineties, had a huge success, fi nancially speaking also. All profi ts go to the Tadra Project!

Orders please to:Tadra-Projekt e.V., Stettiner Str. 11a, 58515 LüdenscheidGermany

Donations please to:Bank: Sparkasse LüdenscheidKonto 12 12 02 IBAN DE94 4585 0005 0000 1212 02SWIFT: WELADED1LSD

Tel. 02351-944753Fax 02351-944754info@tadra.de www.tadra.de