Project Manager: HlamoTso (Gina)
This project is to buy 320 m^2 of stainless steel sheet to repair the village stupa and protect local culture through preserving the village stupa as local tangible cultural artifact and to provide spiritual support to local people.
Asia Foundation funded this project
Hlamo Tso (Gina) is from Waku Village, Wendu Tibetan Township, Xunhua Salar Autonomous County, Haidong Region, Qinghai Province, PRC. She graduated with an Associate’s degree in English and Tibetan at the English Training Program in Qinghai Normal University Nationalities Department. Currently she is working as a full-time staff member at Shem Women’s Group.
Who? 570 people from the Waku village and another 456 people from the other seven nearby villages.
Photos of the project implementation
Both village men and women are participating in unloading the stainless steel sheets from the truck.
The skilled people are structuring the frame under the helps from local villagers that they could cover the damaged parts of stupa easily and safely. They just finished repairing the top part of stupa with yellow stainless steel sheet and it’s shining brightly in that sunny day.
The skilled people are repairing and covering the village stupa with stainless metal sheets and machines.
This is top part of stupa and completely covered by yellow stainless steel sheet
Project summary
Project Title: Cultural Preservation Project for Waku Village
Project goals: The immediate goal of this project to buy 320㎡of Stainless Steel sheet to cover the damaged parts of the village stupa, to prevent rain or snow drop inside, thus to prevent the village stupa from collapse. The overarching goal of this project is to protect local culture through preserving the village stupa as local tangible culture and to provide spiritual supports to local people.
Project location
Xunhua County is the only Salar Autonomous County in China. It is located in the southeastern of Qinghai Province and is about 163 kilometers away from Xining, the capital city of Qinghai Province. It has a territory of 2100 square kilometers. Salar, Tibetan, Hui, and Chinese live in the area. There are 154 villages in 9 townships and 1 town. The total population of the county is 114000. Tibetans number of 23,000 making up 30 percent of the total. Daowei, Wendu, Garang, Gangtsa Townships and Serchang Village are the five areas where Tibetans live in Xunhua County. The project takes place in Waku village which included in Wendu Tibetan Township.
Waku Tibetan Village is located twelve kilometers southeast of the administrative centre of Wendu Tibetan Township. It is 180 kilometers away from Xining. It is located in a valley surrounded by mountains and the villagers live in adobe-wood rooms constructed around a central rectangular-shaped open courtyard.
Project beneficiaries: This project benefited 570 people from the Waku village and another 456 people from the other seven nearby villages.
Implementation organization/individual: HlamoTso（Gina），Chopay(the Waku village leader)and Shem Women’s group
Contact Group: Shem Women’s Group
Funds received: Amount and date received
HlamoTso received 30,400rmb on April 7th from LhamoTso (the financial officer in Shem Women’s Group).
Details of project activities
1. Contacted Zongdrol Rayjay (Who knew where the materials can be purchased with reasonable price) to get the company contact information.
2. Contacted firm’s leader to get specifications and prices for all of the materials
3. Received funds.
4. Contracts were signed with the Preservation project committee.
5. Purchased stainless steel sheets from Eastern Stainless-steel Main Company in Xining
6. Looked for skilled people who know or good at fixing metal works
7. Found necessary tools for fixing
8. The cracking parts are repaired
9. Held a ceremony for the completion project and the village leader explained details of project costs include local contribution.
10. Interviewed the local people and took photos
11. Worked on final report
Project Finances
| Receipt # |
Item |
Donor contrib ution |
Local contri bution |
Shem contri bution |
Proposed cost | Actual cost | Difference |
|
#1 |
White and Yellow Stainless Steel sheet |
25,600 |
0 |
0 |
25,600 |
25,600 |
0 |
|
#1 |
Transportation fee |
2,000 |
500 |
0 |
2,500 |
1,700 |
+800 |
|
#2 |
Fixing fee |
2,500 |
2,000 |
0 |
4,500 |
5,800 |
-1300 |
|
Management |
300 |
300 |
0 |
600 |
*600 |
0 |
|
|
Management Payment |
0 |
0 |
500 |
500 |
500 |
0 |
|
| Total cost in RMB |
30,400 |
2,800 |
500 |
33,700 |
*34,200 | *-500 | |
Explanation: The project costs 34,200rmb, among the 34,200rmb Asia foundation donated 15,462rmb and Shem Women’s Group donated 15,438 to this project, local people donated 3,300rmb include project management expenses 600rmb and the expenses that was over. Due to unexpected price for fixing, the formal budget couldn’t cover all the expenses so some villagers donated rest of money voluntarily on a village meeting. So the project completed successfully.
Difficulties and lesson learned
The first difficulty that I have met was that while I was starting to purchase materials I got confused about the thickness of Stainless-steel sheet. Some villagers said thicker is good but some said it’s inconvenient to cover stupa with thicker stainless-steel sheet. I am the project manager but I didn’t know what to do while the villagers gave comment about the size of thickness of metal sheet. So I visited Zongzhi Ryagyal who had repair stupa with stainless steel sheet.
The second difficulty was that the price of fixing fee is much higher than what we expected before while I was writing proposal. So I and some villagers had meeting for several times and discussed about project costs again, so some of them suggested me to ask for more money from donor. However, I have explained how Shem projects work, and explained that it was impossible to ask donor again. Then we asked the skilled people to make the fixing fee lower, and had whole villagers come together and had meeting. At the time, some families voluntarily donated for the fixing fee which we did not have enough and project was completed happily.
Through these difficulties I have learnt it’s not good to believe in whatever villagers said even they asked about the information from other people. I made phone call to village leader to ask project committee to find out the fixing fee, but when I found out the fixing fee was not what they told, I felt regretted to rely on their information too much, so I believe it’s good to get information by self.
Interviews
He is the expert who knows how to fix the stupa, he has three skilled people as his disciple. When I interview him, they finished cover the top part of stupa. He was pleased by villager’s treatment toward them, like bring food and milk tea everyday for them.
Gongbo Tashi stopped school since he finished his high school in order to support his sister and brother’s school tuition. When I interviewed him he said he is very happy that the stupa is fixed in this year because there around 7 more students in this village who will take the College Entrance exam and the success of fixing stupa would bring them good luck on exam. This village will have more and more educated people in future. He also said that when he is free he came and helped the skilled people to cover the stupa and said that he also can learn some skills of using machine to cut metal sheet.
Her name is Wanma Kandorl and she is not from Waku village but from Dangkha village which is nearby Waku village and she is a high school student. She said that I love to contribute some money for fixing of stupa but I am just a student and I really couldn’t contribute much money. I feel really happy that the stupa looks more beautiful than before and it gives me supports to do more practice at the school with hope and feel happy that I could contribute 5rmb even it’s not much helpful.
Letter of appreciation
Translated Thank You Letter
Dear thankful the Asia Foundation and Shem Women’s Group
I am Waku village leader Chopay. Today I represent all households in Waku village to thank you for your kind helps and loving kindness toward our village to preserve and rebuild our village stupa and bring happiness to all villagers.
All the villagers in Waku would prayer for your success and achievements.
Tashi Delek
From: Waku Village Leader Chopay
Date: 2009/5/6
Receipts
Receipt #1
Above three receipts are the costs of White and Yellow Stainless Steel sheet 25,600 RMB and transportation fee1, 700 RMB is included in this. I have used the company’s truck to transport the materials to Waku village.
Receipt #2
This receipt for fixing fee, there are four skilled people worked on cover cracking parts of stupa with Stainless Steel sheet and the actual fixing fee is 5800 RMB, the3,800rmb is paid from donor contribution and local people donated 2,000rmb for repairing fee.
Original Proposal
Project location
Xunhua County is the only Salar Autonomous County in China. It is located in the southeast of Qinghai Province and is about 163 kilometers away from Xining, the capital city of Qinghai Province. It has a an area of 2100 square kilometers. Salar, Tibetan, Hui, and Chinese live in the area. There are 154 villages in 9 townships and 1 town. The total population of the county is 114,000. There are about 23,000 Tibetans, making up 30 percent of the total population. Daowei, Wendu, Garang, Gangtsa Townships and Serchang Village are the five areas where Tibetans live in Xunhua County. The project takes place in Waku village which is included in Wendu Tibetan Township.
Waku Tibetan Village is located twelve kilometers southeast of the administrative centre of Wendu Tibetan Township. It is 180 kilometers away from Xining. It is located in a valley surrounded by mountains and the villagers live in adobe-wood rooms constructed around a central rectangular-shaped open courtyard.
Population
This village is home to approximately 115 households of 660 people. There are around 220 women and 206 men and 234 children in the village. All residents are Tibetan.
Education
Mostly none of the adults and old people have had an education because there were no schools when they were young. Even if there were schools, they wouldn’t have had enough money to pay for tuition and they thought attending school is kind of a waste of time. As the young adults go outside to look for work and increase their family cash income, more and more people in the village realize the importance of the education and attending school. There are around 190 children in Waku village, and there are 17 university students (6 girls and 11 boys); 20 middle-school and high-school students (13 boys and 7 girls); 63 primary school students (31 girls and 32 boys). Usually only one child can attend school even though the families usually have more than two children, because they don’t have enough money to pay for all of their children to attend school. Moreover, some families don’t even send one child to school because of limited family members for chores in the family.
Cash income
In this area, most young men go outside to earn cash by doing hard physical labor such as digging caterpillar fungus, gold mining and road paving. Much of the agricultural work is the duty of women. Although the men earn some money from outside, it is just enough to finance their children’s school expenses. Also their traditional ways of making a living (such as colleting fuel from local forest and dig medical herbs around village) is becoming limited because of the environmental conservation policies. The villagers realized that they needed to learn some new skills for improving their livelihood.
Despite a long history of trade and commerce, Tibetans have not effectively captured opportunities from emerging markets and services because the limitation of work skills and traditional customs.
On average, each family’s cash income is about 2,500 rmb/year. Locals can earn around 1,000 rmb by selling animal products like butter, yak hair, wool, livestock and cheese. Villagers also earn around 1,500 rmb by working out side the village. These activities include collecting caterpillar fungus (a medicinal herb), doing road work, constructing animal shelters and working in gold mines.
Despite these outside sources of income, several households in the village do not have an adequate supply of food during the year. The factors influencing this level of poverty are detailed below.
The government assigned the amount of land on the basis of the number of household members. Over time, some households have increased in number and the amount of cropland is too little to adequately feed the family members.
Some households do not have enough cash to buy fertilizer, which means that their crop yields are low. Each household approximately spends 600 rmb to buy three kinds of fertilizer. Around 1300 rmb needs to be spent on electricity, clothing and other family expenses such as salt and tea leaves. On average, each family spends 600 rmb on school expenses like food, clothes, sheets and note books for students in middle school or primary school. If the family has a university student then, the family must borrow from other people. What they earn in one whole year is needed to pay back debts and then the family must borrow money from others again for the student’s tuition for the next year. So until the student graduates, the family condition cannot be improved.
Some households have a few young people to do active farm work, herding, or outside work to earn extra income.
Agriculture
Each family owns about 6-10 mu of land. People in this area plant wheat, barley, beans, potatoes and two kinds of oil plant. On average, one mu of land can produce around 300 kg of barley. The cultivation of crops in the village is not mechanized. Plowing is done by mules and horses. Other activities like weeding and harvesting are done by hand by both men and women. Waku Village has approximately180 mu of un-irrigated fields (fields in the highlands cannot be irrigated; growth depends on natural rain) and 140 mu of trees.
Herding/livestock
Most families herd some livestock, like goats, sheep, yak, donkey and horses. Villagers herd livestock in several grassland areas. Each family has around 10 to 18 animals. There are 2497 livestock in total for the whole village. To reach areas from the village requires one day by foot. Villagers face a number of problems with herding, such as, conflicts between Tibetan communities over grazing areas, weather-related injury and death of livestock, natural causes of death of animals. For example, in 2003 summer, it a lightning storm struck a flock of sheep and killed 240 sheep from the village.
Weather
The weather in Xunhua is cold in the winter and hot in summer. Local people keep a constant fire burning in their stoves for almost six months of the year because it is cold in the winter. Previously, villagers used firewood from the forest nearby to cook and heat their homes. Recently the government has banned collecting wood from the forest, so each family must spend 180 rmb on fuel per year now because of the cold weather. Some times in this area especially during the June to August, it rains very heavily and causes floods, which destroys local fields as well as damages buildings, including the village stupa.
Project Goals
The immediate goal of this project is to buy 320 m^2 of stainless steel sheet to cover the village stupa. This will prevent rains and snow from further damaging the stupa and will ensure that the stupa does not collapse.
The overarching goal of this project is to protect local culture through preserving the village stupa as local tangible cultural artifact and to provide spiritual support to local people.
Problems
1. The images and dharma books inside stupa are damaged
There are lots of important dharma books and different images or statuaries inside the stupa. The stupa has been cracking partly at the top and when it rains water goes inside stupa and damages all the objects in it.
2. It’s dangerous to circulate around the village stupa
The top of the village stupa was damaged, and it was badly cracked. Locals are afraid come to the stupa to do religious activities especially circumambulation. Also the grandparents become very busy, since they have to make sure that their grand children do not go near the stupa and they need to spend more time on taking care of the children.
3. The villagers are worrying about the sustainability of the stupa
According to interviews that I did on Feb, 17th 2008, the villagers had strong idea to collect money from each household to repair the stupa. However, most of families can’t give money at all, because last year there was a governmental policy that dictated that all villages should build paths in the village with cement. At the time the village didn’t have running water. They had to do a running water project before the cement path could be built in the village. These two events happened one by one. The government collected 500 rmb from each household for the cement path and 400 rmb for the running water project at the end of last year. Therefore, it’s very difficult for the families to spend money on preserving the stupa. They owe money to others and some families were not able to pay back their debts. It’s not a good time to collect money from families for repairing the stupa. Also the village stupa gives locals spiritual power and supports community feeling.
4. The number of people who are doing religious activities are decreasing rapidly
The stupa is located in Waku village and it’s the village’s only stupa. But before more people from the other near villages around Waku village such as Zhaisa, Dangkha, Rimag, Nisai, Jiangjia, Rima and Caizai villages came to the stupa to do religious activities like circumambulation. There was always a crowd of people there. They had lots of topics to talk about and sometimes exchanged ideas. Also sometimes they enjoyed meals together beside the stupa. This was before the stupa was damaged. However, recently only one or two people can be seen near the stupa, since the stupa was cracked partly and the locals are afraid that the stupa would fall down and injure villagers.
Benefits
1. The statuaries and religious books inside stupa can be saved from being damaged
The project will repair the cracked parts with stainless steel sheets. It will prevent water damage inside the stupa. The statuaries and religious books inside stupa can be saved from being damaged by rain.
2. No risks of doing religious activities near the village stupa
The stupa will be strong, steady and invulnerable since the cracking parts will be repaired to prevent rain from damaging the stupa. Locals will no longer need to be afraid to come to the stupa to do religious activities. Also the elders will no longer need to worry about their grandchildren’s safety to play near the stupa while they are busy.
3. The villagers no longer need to worry about the sustainability of the stupa
The project will improve the most serious problem in the village recently by providing materials to protect the village stupa from been damaged and empower the villagers spiritually.
4. The number of people who are doing religious activities will be increased
The project will improve the steadiness of the stupa and people will feel safe to come to the stupa and continue their daily activities as before. Also the project will increase the number of the participants doing religious activities near the stupa.
Beneficiaries
This project will benefit 570 people from the Waku village and another 456 people from the other seven nearby villages such as, Zhaisa, Dangkha, Rimag, Nisai, Jiangjia, Rima and Caizai.
Gender Equality
In Wendu Tibetan Township men and women likely believe that women are inferior. There are many things in place in the village that discriminate against women, from unequal work practices to religious rituals. From June 15th to August 1st, a ritual takes place within the local monastery which specifies that women may not enter the monastery complex. For 45 days they are not allowed to enter the monastery. Another example can be seen in the general preference for monks leading rituals in family’s houses, rather than nuns. Even though both villagers and nuns practice the same religious ceremonies, the nuns are seen as inferior. If this project is funded, then there is a high possibility that the community’s perceptions of women will begin to change.
Village people will see that a woman can successfully design, manage and implement a much needed development project. An important message will be sent to the community at large. I have seen this transformation after other successful projects, including a solar cooker project in my local area. At this time, people said that young women such as me were actually better at getting things done than any man. I believe that through this project, people’s perceptions of women could change, and it would be understood that women and girls could make genuine and substantial contributions to their communities.
Government Approval
The local government believes that to protect local cultural heritage is the most important thing. They gave permission and supported the project when a village secretary discussed it with Chopay (new village leader) and XiawoThai (the old village leader).
Project Steps
1. Collect information regarding the basic needs for the villagers. (Already done)
2. Visit XiawoThai, who is the village leader. Discuss the risks of village stupa’s sustainability. (Already done)
3. Have meeting with XiawoThai, Chopay (the man who will be the village leader), PamaTsedan (an old man who knows more about the construction of stupas) and LimaoThai (a village woman who really supports this project a lot), and discuss how to do this project and divide the labor. (Already done)
4. The project committee is established with the participation of both men and women. This committee is composed of six people – four men, a village woman and the project manager Hlamotso (Gina). (Already done)
5. Visit village stupa with the Preservation project committee and take photos. (Already completed)
6. Contact Zongdrol Rayjay (who knows where the materials could be purchased for a reasonable price) to get the company contact information.
7. Contact firm’s leader to get specifications and prices for all of the materials.
8. Receive funds.
9. Contracts are signed with the preservation project committee.
10. Purchase stainless steel sheets from Eastern Stainless-steel Main Company in Xining.
11. The cracking parts are repaired.
12. Establish a sustainable management plan. This will involve choosing five members who are responsible and have good reputations within the village by a meeting. These members will manage the system for a set period of time, and will then choose a new committee for the upcoming years.
13. Document the success of the project, take photos, and interview the villagers.
14. Write final report.
15. Send the final report do the donor with photos and receipts.
Time Frame
This project will take 16 days to be completed:
1 day: Hold a meeting with committee talks about the project plan
1 day: Sign any contracts with the project committee.
3 days: Purchase the materials
10 days: The expert will work on repair things under villagers’ helps
1day: Hold meeting with the project committee to talks about the project sustainable management plan.
Detailed Budget
|
Item |
Price per item in rmb |
Number |
Donors contribution |
Shem |
Local contri |
Total Cost |
|
White and Yellow Metal Steel sheet |
80 |
320㎡ |
25,600 |
0 |
0 |
25,600 |
|
Transportation fee (From Xining to Waku Village) |
|
0 |
2,000 |
0 |
500 |
2,500 |
|
Fix fee |
|
0 |
2,500 |
0 |
2,000 |
4,500 |
|
Management Expenses (Phone calls, photocopies, developing photos) |
|
|
300 |
0 |
300 |
600 |
|
Management payment |
|
|
0 |
500 |
0 |
500 |
|
Total |
|
|
30,400 |
500 |
2,800 |
33,700 |
Total amount requested from donor: 30,400rmb
Project Sustainability
The villagers will take care of the stupa and repair any damages in a timely manner after the project. The villagers have access to skilled workers who have the necessary skills to make repairs, as they will be involved in the entire process of this project since the stupa gives them strong spiritual support. Additionally, I checked steel markets in Xining and also visited some monasteries that used stainless steel sheets with stupas to get more information about the quality of stainless steel sheets. So the quality of materials is reliable.
Additional Information
The project manager HlamoTso has managed some small scale development projects in Qinghai province and Sichuan province.
In 2002, Hlamo Tso implemented and monitored (on a volunteer basis) a 3,900 rmb solar cooker project for Waku Tibetan Village, which was supported by Canada Fund.
In 2003, Hlamo Tso did three second hand clothes projects for Waku village.
From August to December in 2005 Hlamo Tso worked for Green Kham, a grass-roots development organization based in Ganzi Prefecture, Sichuan Province. She helped the organization to evaluate their projects and translate proposals.
In 2007, she successfully completed a running water project for Kangmo monastery, which was funded by The Royal Netherlands Embassy.
Photos
The project committee discusses the solutions for the problems and divides labor.
The villagers worriedly check the risks of the village’s stupa.
Map of the project location
