Why do the people of East Tibet need our help?
The home base of Vista is in the town of Sershul in Eastern Tibet. Tibetans call this region Kham, and it is now part of the Chinese province of Sichuan.
Known as Khampas, the people of Kham are a friendly and fiercely independent people with a proud and rich cultural history.
Around 90% of them are nomadic yak herders, deriving their income from the milk products, meat and wool the yaks produce. As such, they live in large tents which are easy to dismantle and transport to new grazing areas.
At over 4,000 metres above sea level on the Tibetan plateau, the winters are long and harsh, getting as cold as -40° C.
Their traditional nomadic life is being disrupted
Two factors have brought enormous changes to the Khampa way of life.
Climate change has substantially reduced annual rainfall, stressing the vast yak grazing fields.
Also, a new local government law now compels nomads to move from their tents into permanent housing, for which they must pay.
Tibetan nomads earn as little as $200 per year
The old skills they used to make a living are no longer relevant. Lacking any formal education, they are faced with the formidable task of finding a new way to survive.
As a result, nomadic Tibetans of Sershul County are among the poorest in China, with cash incomes as low as $200 per annum, which makes the transition from nomad to householder very difficult.
They are left stranded in modern China
Having few skills to meet the challenges of their changing situation, many fall into despondency, spending their days with nothing to do and with no purpose in their lives.
This sad situation is particularly problematic for young people who while away their days drinking, smoking and playing pool as a way to counteract the boredom and futility that has overtaken them.
Without help, remote Tibetan communities are effectively excluded from the benefits of the rapidly developing Chinese economy, yet suffer the disruption to their traditional way of life that flows from this development:
- Few local businesses are owned and operated by Tibetans
- Few government officals are Tibetan
- Most nomads are illiterate in both the Tibetan and Chinese languages
- Most are subsistence nomadic pastoralists with little cash income to pay for schools, health services or modern goods.
The Vista Project was setup to tackle these problems
Find out more about our programmes setup to alleviate poverty, provide education, and spur cultural revitalisation inside Tibet.