ISSN (print): 1835-7741 ISSN (electronic): 1925-6329 Library of Congress Control Number: 2008944256 DS1.A4739 UPLANDS—ASIA—PERIODICALS TIBET, PLATEAU OF—PERIODICALS CITATION: Tshes bcu lha mo (CK Stuart, ed). 2013. Mushroom Ghosts, Belligerent Yaks, and Cranberry Cocktails: A Brag 'go Tibetan Woman's Early Life. Asian Highlands Perspectives 29. SUMMARY: Tshes bcu lha mo, a native of Nor bu khug Village (Brag 'go Township, Brag 'go County Town, Dkar mdzes Prefecture, Sichuan Province, China) writes about her mother, her grandmother, and her great grandmother. She also describes her own childhood, including herding adventures, being attacked by a yak, education at home and in school, medical care, attending school in Zi ling (Xining), working in Lha sa and elsewhere in China, and attending school in the USA. FRONT COVER: Tshes bcu lha mo in Helena, Montana (2013, Judy Smith). BACK COVER: Tshes bcu lha mo's family and mother's cousin's family (June 2010, Bsod nams byams pa). 2014. 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CONTENTS Acknowledgements <5> Map of Dkar mdzes (Ganzi) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, China <6> PART ONE: MY MOTHER (YE SHES, B. 1967) <7> 1: A Deadly Earthquake <8> 2: Grandmother <16> 3: A Stepmother <25> 4: Marriage <33> PART TWO: ME (LHA MO, B. 1988) <37> 5: A Late Arrival <38> 6: Yak Attack <42> 7: Slaughtering Pigs <47> 8: Tumbling Off a Horse <53> 9: A Ghostly Yak <59> 10: A Miserable Marriage <64> 11: Scalded <76> 12: Uncle Rin chen's Bar Brawl <85> 13: A Puppy <91> 14: A Fight With a Boy <97> 15: Mushrooms and a Ghost <104> 16: Visiting a Nomad Couple <113> 17: Yak Thieves <120> 18: First Day at Middle School <125> 19: Early Morning Surprises <131> 20: Admirable Boys <135> 21: Hard Work Pays Off <139> 22: Journey to Zi ling City <145> 23: Marc and Andrea <153> 24: Lha sa <156> 25: Bde Chen <163> 26: To the USA <172> 3 27: The New World <179> 28: Haircuts <183> 29: Drunk <187> 30: The Future <191> Non-English Terms <194> 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We thank Gabriela Samcewicz, Gerald Roche, Timothy Thurston, Rin chen rdo rje, and Rose Hyson for helping with this book. 5 This map shows the location of Sichuan Province (light gray, bottom right) within China, and the location of Luhuo (Brag 'go) County (black) and Dkar mdzes (Ganzi) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture (white), within Sichuan Province.1                                                                                                                             1 This is a modified version of Croquant, https://commons.wikimedia.org/ wiki/File:Location_of_Garz%C3%AA_Prefecture_within_Sichuan_(China). png, accessed 25 July 2013. 6 PART ONE MY MOTHER Ye shes (b. 1967) 7 1 A DEADLY EARTHQUAKE Brag 'go (Luhuo) County Dkar mdzes (Ganzi) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, China is located at the upper- middle section of the Xianshui River, in a region where there is frequent earthquake activity. Earthquakes greater than 6.0 magnitude occurred seven times between 1816 and 1973 in Brag 'go and nearby regions. Most notable were a 7.25 magnitude quake in 1923 and a 7.6 one in 1973. Local people suffered greatly. The 1923 and 1973 earthquakes happened in the same location within a fifty year period, which is rare for earthquakes. Judging from this, the danger of earthquakes in Brag 'go County is extreme. The 1973 earthquake resulted in the deaths of 2,199 people, destruction of 66,024 buildings, and a direct economic loss of 195 million RMB.2 I t was the sixth day of Lo sar – the Tibetan Lunar New Year. We didn't have much to celebrate with. We couldn't even get meat. We had only rice and noodles. Still, all the villagers gathered to try and enjoy themselves on that cold, dusty day. Mother didn't allow me to go outside and play. "Don't go out. I'll cook your favorite food for dinner," she said. At that time, rice was my favorite food, and I enjoyed every precious opportunity to eat it, even though they were few and far between. I gladly stayed home. I stayed in our small courtyard and played alone with my collection of garbage: bottles, cans, plastic bags, and nicely-shaped stones. At dusk, Mother called me to come to dinner. Father was changing Brother's pants when I came inside. "After dinner we'll go to bed. Why are you putting pants on Brother?" I asked. Father answered, "He wet his pants." "Ye shes, take off your new clothes or you'll get them dirty!" Mother shouted from our shabby kitchen.                                                                                                                           2 Edited and annotated from Cheng, FY and Wang YY. 1996. Post- earthquake Rehabilitation and Reconstruction. New York: Pergamum, 203- 204; and Ye Yaoxian. nd. Chinese Experience With Post-Natural-Disaster Reconstruction, http://unpan1.un.org/ intrados/groups/public/documents /APCITY/UNPAN025919.pdf, accessed 6 February 2013. 8 I was eager to eat rice and shouted back, "I'll be careful when I eat. I won't get them dirty." Father came and forced me to change my clothes. I said, "Mother please cook quickly! I'm hungry." She brought a plate of fried cabbage and Father brought the rice to the table. I happily jumped up and down and shouted, "Yay! There's rice to eat!" My loud shout shocked Brother, who was just a year old, and he started crying. "Please take our dear son, I'll help here," Father said to Mother, handing me my red bowl full of rice. I stood by the table to eat. Father brought a small chair and said, "Don't eat standing up or you'll never grow up big and strong." Mother held Brother and patted him to stop him crying. She sat on a simple chair with Brother in her lap as Father served us. During our meal, a very loud sound, like an explosion, suddenly came from the ground. Our shabby house shook, the bowls danced on the table, and then the house collapsed. I saw a beam fall on Mother and Brother as the house collapsed. Full of fear, I shouted to Mother, but then I lost consciousness. It was very dark when I woke up. I wanted to get up, but something very heavy was on top of me. I couldn't move. I called, "Mother! Father!" There was no response. I struggled to get away from that heavy thing, but I felt so weak that I could hardly move. After about a half hour I heard someone calling, "Ye shes, where are you? Can you hear me?" I wanted to answer but my mouth was aching and I couldn't open it. I reached out and grasped something to try and pull myself up, but whatever it was that I grabbed broke to pieces in my hand. A voice said, "Brother, come here. I think she's here. I heard something." "Ye shes, where are you? Please answer," Father said sadly. I saw his dim outline in the moonlight. I tried very hard and managed to whisper, "Father, I'm here." Then, I used my left foot to make some noise, and finally, Father found me. He and his youngest sister began pulling the debris off me. Father was crying and said, "My dear daughter, how are you? Are you hurt?" I was very sad when I heard Father sobbing. He wildly pulled things away from me, but it was an hour before he reached me. He embraced me tightly, but I pushed him away with my hands, because my jaw was very painful and his embrace had jarred it. 9 "My dear, are you OK?" he asked, and then took me to a small shack my Aunt had built out of the lumber from her house, which had also collapsed. Father put me on a goat skin. I was too tired to move or talk, and I quickly fell asleep. When I woke up it was daytime. I was covered by a filthy blanket under a tattered tent. I wanted to get up, but my head felt terribly heavy. I thought I must have lost my jaw. I heard footsteps. Too sore to talk, I scratched the tent. It was Father outside. He rushed to me and said, "Please don't move. I'll take you to the doctor." He kissed my cheek. I was suddenly overwhelmed with sadness and began to cry. Tears flowed down my cheeks like beads falling from a broken string. "Father, I want Mother. Where are Mother and Brother?" I whispered. His face became very pale. "My dear, they are too tired to get up. Today, I'll take you to the County Town to buy candy," he said, embracing me and crying. "Brother! Hurry! The car is leaving," called Aunt from outside the tent. "Ye shes, it's time to go," he said and wrapped me in an old, smelly blanket. Our beautiful village was now nothing more than piles of rubble. The sky was full of dust swirling about on the frigid wind, which also carried the pitiful wails of seemingly countless villagers. Aunt's house was in the village center and adjoined a wide, square yard used for village meetings and other communal activities. It was normally surrounded by a packed earthen wall that had now utterly collapsed. Many people were gathered there. They were mostly injured people and those who were helping them. A doctor came and checked my jaw. He said something that I didn't understand. Father took me to a white van that could hold about twenty people. A young, beautiful doctor helped him put me in the van with other injured villagers. It was soon very crowded. There was very little room to sit. "Father, don't leave me alone," I said when the beautiful doctor tried to close the van door. "OK, I'll come," he said and, after talking with Aunt, got in and held me on his lap. When the van jerked and bounced over the rough road, people were knocked together and I felt great pain. "Where are we going? Where are Mother and Brother?" I 10