Projects

This project is to buy 32 prayer wheels, repair the leaking roof of the Fudi Village’s temple and make the path around the prayer hall wider , it preserves the cultural traditions of Fudi Village as well.

Funds needed: $8,746(59,950rmb)

Samtsogye is now working as a gender program director and core staff of Shem Women’s Group. She from Xiahe County, Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Gansu Province, China. She was graduated in 2006 with an associated degree in English from Qinghai Normal University Nationalities Department’s English Training Program.
Project location
The project is located in Fudi Village, in the east of Xiahe County (historically known as Lhabrang), Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Gansu Province, China. Xiahe is 278 kilometers from Lanzhou, the provincial capital, and 290 kilometers from Xining, the capital of Qinghai Province.

Population
There are 45 households and 500 people in Fudi village. About half of Fudi’s residents are middle-aged people, 40-60 years old, 30 % are young people 1-39 years old, and 20 % are old people 61-93 years old. There are 218 men, 226 women, and 56 school children aged 1- 17 years old in Fudi. All of the residents of Fudi village are Tibetan.

Cash income
The average family in Fudi makes 1,500 RMB per year before. After the village prayer temple will be completed , each of the family can save 2400rmb from riding taxies Half of their income is used to buy basic needs like salt and onions, and the other half of the money is spent at the end of the year to buy some simple New Year’s purchases. At the end of the year, most families have no extra money. There are 18 single female -headed families and 12 childless elder couples in Fudi village. These single mother families and childless elder couples are poor compared to the two-parent families. These families will directly benefit from the project.

There are several ways that Fudi villagers earn money.

Most men earn money by carrying sand and stones from the village to the townspeople in mini trucks. Each full truck bed earns 50 RMB. The village men can carry a maximum of three full truck beds (150 RMB worth) per day, as it is10 km from Fudi to Lhabrang township. This is a very good salary, but the trucking work cannot be done everyday because sand and stones are not in very high demand. The village men also sell two or three sheep when a family is desperate for money to buy medicine; here I mean in an emergency situation that we have to sell our livestock like to buy medicine. Usually we don’t sell the sheep if we are not in great need of money. One sheep can be sold for around 200 RMB. However, the animal trade can only be done for two months each year, during the fall. During other seasons, the animals are too thin to sell. Most women make money by selling yak dung. Each bag of yak dung costs 2 RMB, and 20 bags in a small truck can earn 40 RMB. Only in the winter time we sell yak dung. Women can also sell milk and yogurt for 5 RMB per 5-liter bottle. Doing this, they can earn about 30 RMB per week. During harvest time, other villages hire Fudi village women to harvest. A woman can earn 15 RMB from a whole day of hard labor. The money from the sale of milk is kept by the women while the money from the sale of livestock is kept by men.

Agriculture
Most of the Fudi villagers earn their living off of both agriculture and herding. Each family has between 5 and 10 mu of farmland. Fudi villagers only grow barley because the high elevation makes it impossible to grow other crops. This means they have to buy all of their vegetables from outside. Every year, the average family can produce 45 kilograms of barley. This is not enough for self-consumption, forcing the purchase of additional barley from the outside for the families to eat. There is never enough barley harvested to sell.

The farmlands are located on a hill and have no irrigation, leaving a great dependence of the rain.

Herding
The average family in Fudi has 150 sheep, 3 cows, and 3 milking yaks. The only income that people make from herding is that which the women make selling milk, cheese, and yogurt. If there is an emergency, such as a family member becoming injured, a sheep or a yak will be sold to provide money for treatment.

Education
Most Fudi villagers are illiterate. Out of 500 villagers, 50 people have a primary school education, 15 people have a middle school education, and 7 have a college education. In addition to being illiterate, most villagers cannot speak Chinese. As a result, villagers are faced with many difficulties such as an inability to do many kinds of trade with others, and to get jobs outside of the village. Currently in Fudi village, out of 56 school-aged children, only 39 attend school. 20 pupils (11 are female and 9 are male) are attending primary school, 13 (8 are male 5 are female) students are attending middle school and 4( 1 female 3male) are attending college now.
Taxes
Before 2005, each person in Fudi village had to pay 100 RMB plus 10 RMB per livestock to the local government. The average family had to pay 2000 RMB per year. After 2005, the government revoked all the taxes and there are no current taxes.

Weather
The weather in Xiahe County is usually cold. In Fudi village， there is no clear distinction between spring, winter, summer and autumn. Most months are winter. From June to August the weather is a little bit hot, but after that people have to wear their sheepskin robes all the time for warm. The cold weather makes it impossible to grow anything other than barley. Therefore, the villagers have to spend a lot of money buying other crops like rapeseed, wheat, and other vegetables, including onions. Average temperature is 22 degrees in the summer and, below 8 degree in the winter.

Project Goals and Benefits

The overall goal of this project is to preserve the cultural traditions of Fudi Village.
The immediate goal of this project is to buy 32 prayer wheels, repair the leaking roof of the village temple and make the path around the prayer hall wider in Fudi Village.
Problems

1. The cultural and religious center of Fudi Village is in great danger of disappearing. This cultural center consists of one main prayer hall, with more than 250 years of history. People gather here many times a year to carry out religious rituals and discuss important events. People also gather here to pray for good harvests, happiness, and peace. Most of the village women (squeeze some) find time to come to the prayer hall every afternoon to circumambulate and pray at the wheel. Even on the most important religious days, all women come to this prayer hall and read scriptures, unlike village men who ride their bicycles and motorcycles to Labrang Monastery to pray. Right now there is only one prayer wheel in this village prayer hall, so it is not enough for all the women and men to pray every afternoon. It is always very crowded and sometimes creates conflict. This is the main spot that the village people can get the diverse news which is happening outside of the village.

2. The prayer hall roof is leaking and allowing all kinds of bird to come and go. Due to rain damage, cracks are beginning to show in the temple. The Buddha statues and old Tangkas are also in danger of being exposed to the elements due to the weathering of the building. In addition, the building’s dilapidated condition makes it dangerous for use by elders and pilgrims.

3. The walls around the prayer hall are in terrible condition. They were made out of dirt and are falling down.

4. The narrow clay path around the prayer hall is eroding and falling away, making it difficult for people to travel back and forth safely.

5. Fudi Village has no public money to rebuild the prayer hall. Luckily, last year Fudi villagers loaned their spring grassland to another village. This generated 20,000 RMB in total. 10,000 RMB of this have already been spent on the religious rituals held each year.

6. It is difficult to collect the rebuilding money from the villagers because they have such a small cash income each year.

7. In Fudi Village all the people over 50 years old gather together around the prayer hall to circumambulate. Right now in the temple there is only one prayer wheel and some clay figures. Women in the village don’t know how to ride bicycles and motorcycles, and cannot afford to take a taxi to go to Labrang Monastery to circumambulate. As being Tibetans and according to the custom, all the villager in Fudi Village should go to circumambulate Labrang Monastery to accumulate good deeds for the next life, we don’t have a safe built prayer hall to be circumambulate. In this case women are the one who needs to take the public buses or taxis all the time to go to Labrang Monastery.

Solution
1. Repair the collapsing prayer hall walls with bricks to make it stable.

2. Expand the path around the prayer hall to prevent elders and people who are circumambulating the prayer hall from getting injured
3. Repair the leaking roof to prevent the Buddha statues and scriptures inside from getting damaged by rain and birds.

4. Buy 32 small prayer wheels for around the prayer hall to let all village people circumambulate.

These four solutions will allow villagers to circumambulate around a nice, safe prayer hall with many prayer wheels.

Benefits
1. Fudi Village women will have a place to relax after finishing their jungle chores. All village people will have a place to carry on religious rituals and safely keep the valuable Buddha images, continuing their customs. A restored prayer hall will also provide a space for everyone to gather together to solve problems and pray.

2. Elders and women can circumambulate the prayer hall with many prayer wheels without worrying about getting injured by the collapsing walls of the prayer hall.

3. Per family can save 2400 RMB from this project per year. If the project is completed, then all the elders and women will not need to pay the taxies go to Labrang Monastery to circumambulate. Because this is a center of the religious place each month, there are currently more than 10 days per month all villagers go to Labrang Monastery to circumambulate. By taxi the roundtrip costs 20 yuan one day, 200 per month and 2400 per year. With a restored prayer hall, villagers can stay in Fudi to pray.

4. The restored prayer hall will increase the feelings of togetherness for the villagers.
5. Restorations will preserve this cultural spot for future generations, so all the traditional customs and rituals may carry on.

Interviews

LhaTai

She is a sixty five years old woman in Fudi Village. She says: “This temple is the only place that most village women (including myself) can escape the endless housework to relax a bit and freely talk about everything we want to. Since 1950, I have been circumambulating the temple. As I have a poor health condition and cannot go far away from the village, my family let me stay at home to feed the pigs and sheep. This means that the temple is the only information source that I have and the only holy place that I have ever seen in my life. Right now the temple is partially falling down and all the statues are damaged. I cannot imagine that one day this temple may disappear, giving people like me no outlet for information or prayer. For ourselves and the future generations, the temple should be rebuilt. This will allow the inner communication to get strong and women to have some leisure time to be together to talk and pray.”

Wanma Dongdrob

He is the Fudi Village leader. He says: “We had the plan to rebuild the temple almost five years ago. We couldn’t make the plan happen because our village doesn’t have any public money like other villages do from selling the expensive plants (Caterpillar Fungus or the special mushrooms). Luckily, last year we loaned our spring grassland to another village, so we generated a little money. Unfortunately, this amount of money is too little to rebuild the temple. To rebuild independently, we have to collect at least 2,000 RMB from each family. This is a big burden on all of us. We cannot give this money to rebuild the temple, but the temple should be rebuilt. Old people, especially women are always around the temple because they cannot ride motorcycles to go to the city monastery to circumambulate. If the temple is rebuilt, it will bring a lot of convenience for women and old people the village culture will be preserved.”
Gender equality
This project will help empower local women by giving them direct benefit from it. This project will generally help all the villagers, especially increasing convenience for all the women who cannot ride bicycles and motorcycles to go to the distant Labrang monastery. Secondly, all the women will participate in all levels of project implementation, including collecting local contributions and providing unskilled labor alongside local men during construction. This is a big project and its’ implementation will hopefully cause local people to think about females in a different way, reducing some of their old prejudices against females.
In addition, this project is managed by an educated local woman, so its successful completion will change villagers’ perceptions of women’s capabilities.

Governmental support
The manager of this project already has done several small- scale development projects in this area, and the government leaders are very supportive, giving her full permission to go forward with this project. Leaders encourage the project because it will improve the terrible prayer hall conditions. I have done more than 5proffetional small scaled project, so the county leader Namka gave me his full permission already.

The steps of the project

Get ideas from local people and gather information of their condition and project by holding some meetings. The project manager has chosen 3 people to form a local project committee to be responsible for the sustainability. (Already happened)

1.Hold a meeting with the village leaders to make the basic budget for the project. (Already completed)
2.Hold a meeting with the village leaders to list the basic materials needed for rebuilding the prayer hall. (Already completed)

3. Hold a meeting to measure how many meters the width and height of the prayer hall should be expanded. (Already completed)

4. Hold a meeting with the village leaders and the engineer. (Already completed) The main content was about where the materials will be purchased: Cement in the County Cement Company in Xiahe County; Red bricks and cinder blocks in the County Tile Factory in Xiahe County. Etc.

5. Secure funding from donor organization.

6. Collect the local contribution from the villagers.

7.Local people begin to collect the stones, sand, and earth from 13 km away near the village winter pasture.
8. Buy building materials from Xiahe County. Go together with the village leaders and the engineer in order to ensure the quality of the materials.

9. Buy 32 prayer wheels.

10. Build the prayer hall.

11.Evaluate the prayer hall.
12. Take pictures.

13. Interview the local people (men, women, and children)

14. Interview the village leaders.

15. Write final report.

16. Send final report with pictures and receipts to donors.

Timeframe

Time line: From the time that the project is approved, this project will take approximately 88 days.
1 day: Hold a village meeting to announce the rules that villagers should follow and ensure their readiness to work until the prayer hall is complete.

10 days: To knock down the old, narrow path and the broken walls around the prayer hall.

15 days: To transport 150 tracks of stones from the village winter pasture.

15 days: To transport 50 tracks of earth and 50 tracks of sand from our winter pasture.

5 days: To transport a big track of the wood to build the prayer hall from Hezuo, the capital city in Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture.
10 days: Purchase 32 prayer wheels, tile, red bricks, and cement. Transport materials from Xining City.
1 day: Purchase small materials and transport from our county town, Xiahe County.
30 days: Build the barrier wall.
1 day: Hold a second village meeting to clarify responsibilities of prayer hall committee and announce completion of project.

Detailed Budget

Item	Price per item inrmb	Number of items	Donor contribu tionin rmb	Local contribu tion in rmb	Other resource (Shem) in rmb	Total cost in rmb
prayer wheel	500	32	16,000	0	0	16,000
log( trans portation isincluded) 248	100	300	30,000	0	0	30,000
Tile(trans portation included)	0.7	4,000	2,800	0	0	2,800
Carpenter /room	300	12	3,600	0	0	3,600
Red brick (trans portation included)	0.5	3,000	1,500	0	0	1,500
Repair thewalls	1,000	4	4,000	0	0	4,000
Cement / ton(trans portation included)	350	5	1,750	0	0	1,750
earth/ track	80	80	0	6,400	0	6,400
l sand/ track	80	130	0	10,400	0	10,400
Stone/track	80	180	0	14,400	0	14,400
Project Manage ment Expenses			300	200	0	500
Project Manage ment Payment			0	0	500	500
Total			59,950	31,400	500	91,850

The local contribution is 31,400rmb

The donor contribution : 59,950RMB = $8,746
Sustainability
This project is very sustainable, because the Fudi Village will pay for maintenance of the prayer hall after the project is completed. Also, the contractor is using very good quality materials so that the payer hall will remain in excellent condition for more than fifty years.
Additional information

Previous projects completed by Samtsogye:
Samtsogye has successfully completed 7 small-scale development projects in Lhabrang County. In 2002, 2003, and 2004, she completed three second-hand clothing projects organized by Sue Bishop at the British Consulate in Shanghai. In total, she distributed second-hand clothing to over 200 people. In 2005, she implemented a solar cooker project supported by the Canada fund, bringing 45 solar cookers to the monks of Lhabrang Monastery who did not have any family support or source of food and fuel. Most recently, in March of 2006, a private donor provided support for Samtsogye to distribute 14 solar cookers to the Nuns of Tawa Gongma Nunnery.

In 2006, she implemented an Aluminum Milk Churn project for the two poorest nomadic villages in the area increasing the families living condition, income, and reducing their labor, thereby increasing girl’s school attendance and women and girl’s overall quality of life. This project was funded by the Shambala Connection.
In January 2007, Samtsogye did a cultural preservation project for the Nuns of Tawa Gongma Nunnery. In October 2007, Samtsogye did a second hand clothing project for Fudi Village.

Photos

The village women are pulling the prayer wheel and worrying about the poor condition of theprayer hall.

The village men are discussing the details of how to rebuild the prayer hall and where they should buy the good quality and inexpensive materials.

The front wall of the prayer hall is falling apart.

The back wall of the prayer hall

The right side wall of the prayer hall

The roof of the prayer hall has almost become a bush because if people try to go there and cut the grass, they will break the roof.


The village leaders are holding meeting.

The map of the proposal location