Original title: Two letters from the plateau spanning 30 years
Qian Jiang Evening News reporter Chen Weibin Huang Xiaoxing Tibet Daily reporter Wan Jing/Wen Qian Jiang Evening News reporter Ni Yanqiang Wang Jianlong/Photo
Naqu Xiangmao Primary School is one of the first Hope Primary Schools in the local area
There are advanced hardware facilities in the school classroom
When Naqu Hangzhou Hope Primary School was completed, some teachers and students took a group photo as a souvenir (information picture)
In Naqu, "the roof of the roof of the world", an area equivalent to three Zhejiang provinces, the best building is a school.
The pastures are vast, clouds and mountains stand side by side, yaks are scattered like stars, and under the high Nyainqen Tanggula Mountains, the Beijing Tibet Expressway and the Qinghai Tibet Railway line cross the Qiangtang Grassland in a crisscross way. Time flies like a fleeting vehicle. Xiangmao Township Primary School, which is more than 4700 meters above sea level and has complete facilities beside the road, has a unique DNA embedded in the wall of the main building: engraved with "Naqu Hangzhou Hope Primary School" Stone tablet of.
29 years ago, a letter of help from a Tibetan aid cadre was sent from Naqu, crossing thousands of mountains to the bank of Xizi Lake, more than 3800 kilometers away, and then poured into the plateau with love, so that children there could carry schoolbags and change their destiny;
In the past 30 years, many children who used to laugh in front of this stone monument returned to their hometown with "seeds of love and hope" to build their hometown;
In the spring of 2024, Dazawangdui, who was one of the first students of Naqu Hangzhou Hope Primary School, wrote a letter to salute the group of "lovely uncles".
Since the curtain of counterpart assistance to Tibet was officially opened in 1994, by 2022, there have been 10 groups of 11900 Tibetan aid cadres and talents across the plateau. They are all responding to the times with heart, emotion and action.
Letter from plateau
When taking photos, I stood in the middle of the first row. The scene of that day made me and more than 30 classmates unforgettable: since then, we have a new school building, and we no longer have to bear the biting cold wind.
——Letter from Dazawangdui
In April this year, Jiang Jun, one of the first batch of Tibetan aid cadres in the country and the former Executive Deputy Chief of Naqu County, ended his return visit to Tibet. He rolled down the window and waved goodbye to the land again. In the crowd, Dazawangdui suddenly came forward, held Jiang Jun's hand, and gently pressed his forehead against the back of his hand.
This supreme gift is respect, farewell and blessing; It is a memory linked by two letters over 30 years. On this day, it was restarted, expressed and continued.
In the memory of Dazawangdui, 38 years old, there were two "days with Phnom Penh" in his childhood: one was Children's Day in Grade 5, when his parents came to see him from the pastoral area and brought him a new blue and white dress; Another day, the mottled photo paper was frozen in early September 1996, when he and his classmates were playing crazy by the side of the school, he and his classmates were suddenly recalled by Mr. Gesang because a group of "lovely uncles" were coming soon, "and we need to take photos!"
In order to take the first picture of life, the children quickly dispersed, put on the most decent clothes, and wiped their faces and hair. They gathered at a stone tablet engraved with "The Song of Hangzhou Hope Primary School", waved their hands and laughed happily.
Now, Dazawangdui, who has been engaged in education for 19 years, is the party branch secretary of the Fifth Kindergarten in Naqu City. At the end of March this year, when he was preparing a keynote speech for children with the theme of "love", he thought for a long time, and the festive days of his childhood flashed in front of him.
"There are too many words of gratitude in my heart to say." After writing the courseware, Dazawangdui suddenly had an idea to write a letter to those "lovely uncles" that year:
"At first, the school had no walls, the roof was leaking rain and snow, and there was almost no glass in the windows of the classroom. The students were shivering with cold in class. Because of the family's financial difficulties, the students were all wearing thin clothes. After moving into the clean new school buildings, the students were very happy."
He wanted to tell his uncle that later, the walls of the school were better built and the school buildings were more beautiful; Starting from school, their life and family destiny have been changed.
All this originated from a "seed" 30 years ago.
In July 1994, on the 35th anniversary of the liberation of millions of serfs in Tibet, the Central Committee held the third Tibet Work Forum, which defined the policy of "national support for Tibet" and the Tibet aid model of "piecemeal responsibility, counterpart support and regular rotation". The curtain of counterpart assistance to Tibet was officially opened.
On May 20 of the next year, the first group of 45 cadres in Zhejiang who helped Tibet set out from the Dahua Hotel, which is located on the bank of the West Lake in Hangzhou, and marched into Naqu.
The rain on that day was as continuous as willows by the West Lake. Many unknown citizens took to the streets, and the sobs rippled in their ears covered the drip of rain falling branches and leaves, and the eyes of those who saw off and those who were seen off were red.
Later, when "520" became a day to express love, many Tibetan aid cadres felt that this small coincidence reflected everyone's most simple feelings for the snow covered plateau.
That monument
We are looking forward to erecting a monument on the roof of the world, engraved with six characters: Hangzhou Hope Primary School.
——From Jiang Jun's letter
More than a hundred years ago, modern explorers appeared in Naqu, heading toward the distance where the colorful clouds dissipated, and trekking along the "road only set foot by wild yaks, wild donkeys, and antelopes".
Today, without blinking an eye, optical fiber communication will convey the mind of Dazawangdui. But 30 years ago, just like the late spring on the plateau, sending a letter does not mean that there will be an answer.
On August 10, 1995, under the dim candle light of the accommodation building of Naqu County Party Committee, Jiang Jun wrote a special "letter from home" to Shu Shiyue, the then editor in chief of Hangzhou Daily who had never met before.
In those days, the wheels of going to the countryside rolled over the vast grasslands and plunged into the river. Some figures were deeply engraved in Jiang Jun's mind: the enrollment rate of school-age children in Naqu was only 22.5%, and the illiteracy rate of young and middle-aged people was as high as 75%; On average, there is only one primary school in every 1500 square kilometers, and 72% of children are out of school after finishing the third grade, repeating the fate of their parents to whip and herd sheep.
For this 28 year old young man who has just become a father, for countless moments, he can only imagine a new life connected by blood, but at present, there is a sense of responsibility for more children. So he asked for help from the "rear area": "Each Hangzhou person should eat less popsicles, smoke less cigarettes, and save money to build three or four Hope Primary Schools..."
More than ten days later, Jiang Jun was awakened by an urgent telegram, which sent good news in a few short lines.
On August 25 that year, Jiang Jun's letter was published on the front page of Hangzhou Daily and soon spread all over Hangzhou. The farewell that was deeply rooted in people's minds a few months ago was awakened, and the tension of supporting Tibet suddenly burst out - every day many people with cash poured into donation points: a small businessman selling lotus leaves in the vegetable market sent 3000 yuan; An anonymous woman put her husband's death pension into the donation box; Yu Kaining, a 7-year-old girl, wrote a letter to Jiang Jun: "I will not eat popsicles for 10 days from today, save 10 yuan and buy 10 bricks for Xi z à ng (Tibet) Hangzhou Hope Primary School."
In one week, more than 56000 citizens and 120 enterprises donated 2.25 million yuan.
In the second half of 1996, four Hope Primary Schools were successively completed in Naqu, and one of them engraved "Hangzhou" into the school name. Each school is the most beautiful building in the area. The herdsmen were in high spirits. They offered Hada to their children, brought the big horses at home, and sent their children to school.
At present, the enrollment rate of Naqu school-age children is already 100%, and the online rate of college entrance examination in 2023 will reach 95.56%.
From the "Naqu Hangzhou Hope Primary School" built by a letter and the love between the two places to the Xiangmao Township Primary School, which is now the same as the mainland schools, it is a microcosm of the national aid to Tibet and the changes of Tibet in the past 30 years.
The joy and relief are enough to offset the suffering of Tibetan aid cadres. Back in the 1990s, when the mainland was rapidly changing, the plateau still showed a strange and disjointed state. Tibetan aid cadres burn yak dung in their dormitories to keep warm. Their young intestines and stomachs swallow the "extremely hard" water, storable potatoes and cabbage, and go to the countryside to go to the desolate pastoral areas. Sometimes they have to spend the night in a car. The temperature drops to more than - 10 degrees Celsius. They shiver against the window, covering their clothes.
In recent years, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, proceeding from the extremely hard work and life in Tibet, has formulated various policies and measures to relieve the worries of cadres and workers.
Even if they can live in a well guaranteed dormitory, every Tibetan aid cadre who first arrived here still has a hard struggle against altitude reaction: headache, vomiting, and blood oxygen concentration falling to the rescue standard in the mainland. Their skin gradually darkened, and plateau red burned on their faces. More worrisome changes were recorded in medical images: pulmonary hypertension, myocardial hypertrophy... Many Zhejiang aid cadres to Tibet can only sleep for a few hours on sleeping pills. Some people even left their young lives in the snow covered plateau forever.
They don't want to talk about hardship too much, but everyone will mention the 19 words that General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized at the seventh Tibet Work Forum of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China: "No lack of spirit without oxygen, no fear of hardship without hardship, and higher altitude.".
seed germination
Over the past 30 years, it is your love that has planted "seeds of hope and love" for us. Let the children in our pastoral area realize their dreams. I will also pass on this love and warmth.
——Letter from Dazawangdui
Words are like face to face, letters convey thoughts and expectations; Paper is short and love is long. Those who write and reply to letters answer with time and life.
Just like yaks always remember the direction of home at dusk, Dazawangdui did not stay in the outside world after graduating from college. Like him, most of his classmates returned home. Others returned to Xiangmao Township Primary School, where they had studied, to teach. Every day, beside the stone tablet of "Naqu Hangzhou Hope Primary School", they were accompanied by another generation of children with bright eyes and pure smiles.
In 2018, Dazawangdui served as the principal of Naqu Gulu Primary School. He noticed that a child named Rob Jiancai always hid his crippled left hand in his trousers pocket, shrinking his thin body.
"No water, no pond, no love, no education." Dazawangdui thought that such children should pay selfless love. He took the children to Lhasa, amusement parks, science and technology museums to see the outside world; He encouraged Rob to integrate into the group. Even if he did a general cleaning, he also arranged him to set tables and chairs.
A semester later, Dazawangdui checked the interest class and was attracted by a child who sang best and spoke most. At first, it was Rob who was beating the African drum with his defective left hand. Dazawangdui couldn't help crying.
He attributed Rob's progress to "the power of love". When writing a letter, looking back at the way he came, Dazawangdui suddenly found that his growth was also inspired by "love": the bright and clean Hope Primary School building in memory nourished life for a long time. This is the source of his happiness and makes him willing to return his love to the "origin".
The seeds of hope and love are more concrete at present:
Medical and educational talents help Tibet in a "group" way, so that people who suffer from diseases are far away from the plateau, and also carry out the cultivation of "trees for ten years and people for a hundred years";
The public welfare training program of "Dandelion Plan" for calligraphy teachers across the country will send famous teachers to Tibet every year to blend Chinese and Tibetan culture with each painting;
It is their unfulfilled wish that cadres and talents who have been assisting Tibet constantly submit applications for continued assistance to realize more possibilities here;
More and more young people "help the second generation" come here and take root along the path of their parents
"This matter must be done one after another, generation after generation." In July 2021, General Secretary Xi Jinping met with representatives of Tibetan aid cadres and talents during his visit to Tibet.
In June 1998, Xi Jinping, then the deputy secretary of the Fujian Provincial Party Committee, led the second batch of Fujian cadres to Tibet. During his work in Zhejiang, he has also been concerned about Tibet construction and attached great importance to Tibet assistance. Especially since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the work of counterpart support to Tibet has been further strengthened.
Today, strolling along the Beijing Middle Road in Lhasa, the Zhejiang Middle Road, the Liaoning Middle Road in Naqu, and the Shandong Middle Road in Shigatse... Each road name brings together the strength of national aid to Tibet. In the past 30 years, the successive aid to Tibet has brought another kind of "plateau response" to Tibet - by the end of 2019, Tibet will get rid of the absolute poverty that has been shackled for thousands of years, and the policy of counterpart aid to Tibet will also shift from "blood transfusion" assistance to "blood making" assistance. During the "13th Five Year Plan" period, 17 provinces and cities planned to arrange 1260 aid projects to Tibet, with a total investment of 20 billion yuan
On the broad "roof of the world", when Tibetan compatriots meet Tibetan aid cadres and talents, they always greet each other warmly. The slogan "All ethnic groups hold together like pomegranate seeds" can be seen everywhere, and the sense of Chinese national community is rooted in the heart.
Twenty nine years ago, when Hangzhou's love flooded into the plateau, the Tibet Daily echoed with a front page headline, "Echoes from the Rear Area": Tibetan aid cadres are a seed, while the rear area is a big tree with deep roots. "Only in the big family of the motherland can Tibet prosper, and the motherland is always the strong backing of Tibet.".
At present, the greenery of the plateau has come: Naqu was the only city without trees in China. Now spruce has grown along some roads, some have also produced solid and full fruits, and occasionally Tibetan snow finches have built nests among branches.
Over the past 30 years, Tibetan aid cadres and talents from all over the country often bring a bottle of water and a handful of mud from their hometown when they arrive at the remote snow covered plateau. When water and mud melt into the new land, they firmly believe that the soil and mind can always blend, and the seeds will germinate. Spring, like answering letters, will stretch before our eyes.
