Today, 37 of the 45 households in the village have walking tractors. Recorders and sewers are common things for most villagers. Meanwhile, a construction team made up of skilled workers from nine households has been set up to specialize in building new houses for neighboring farmers.
Photo shows the doorplate of a plant specializing in rice cake processing in Gurum Township, Doilungdeqen County, Lhasa, capital of southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region. (Photo Source: chinatibetnews.com)
After leaving Ngodup's home, I went to visit Kelzang Droje, the owner of a mill in the village, while his wife Drolma was making steam bread.
"Are you making this for the Ongkor Festival (Bumper Harvest Festival)?" I asked.
"Our Tibetan farmers usually have rice cakes and butter tea, and also make steam bread or pies frequently, " explained Wangdu.
"We often cook dishes and rice as well," Drolma said with a smile.
Gurum rice cake, once provided for Tibet's upper-class people only, is very famous in Lhasa. Kelzang Droje, 62, a serf then, was always asked to send such delicacy to Lhasa when serving in the Gundeling Monastery.
Now with this mill, he could process flour for villagers and make money by producing rice cakes. He has also bought a carriage and a hand tractor, which could help him transport his products to Lhasa.
Chilai said that there were four enterprises making rice cakes. One was township-run and the rest were privately owned.
As Gurum is near Lhasa and is the only way to a tourist attraction -- the Curpu Monastery, some farmers whose life is better-off have been engaged in transportation. Nine of them even bought mini-buses as taxi cabs, taking visitors both at home and abroad to the monastery. Farmer Dondrup has even updated his "taxi" for three times. "He is much richer than me though I am a government employee," Chilai said with a laughter.
Photo shows farmer Phuntsok in Doilungdeqen County, Lhasa, capital of southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, has a good harvest of plateau barley. (Photo Source: chinatibetnews.com)
Before leaving the town, I asked Wangdu: "What do you want the most next?"
"We want to have electricity!" he answered loudly.
In the early years, the village had a small hydro power station, which had been out of service since the generator broken down. So far, the residents have been without electricity for at least seven years.
"In the evening, children have to light butter lamp for reading or doing homework," Wangdu seemed anxious," We also want to run small enterprises and do cereal and oilseed processing. But the problem is that we have no access to electricity."
"Without electricity, a TV set is useless though many villagers can afford it," said Chilai.
"With electricity, I will buy a TV set first," Wangdu added.
Editor: 卢佳颖 | Source: Xinhuanet