Ｔｈｅ Ｆｉｒｓｔ Ｇｒｏｕｐ ｏｆ Ｔｉｂｅｔａｎ Ｓａｉｌｏｒｓ

Ｙａｎ　Ｅｎｚｅ

In May 2007, Lhosum Chophel and seven other Tibetans signed a contract with the Shanghai Shipping Transportation Company to formally join the company as sailors. Hence, the big family of China Shipping has its first group of Tibetan sailors.

The story dates back three years.

In 2004, the Shanghai Companysent a group of staff to support Tibet. They advanced the idea of recruiting Tibetan sailors, which was fully supported by the local government of Lholung County. In early August, 2005, parents brought their children from far away to make an application and hoped that their children would be successful so as to get chance to leave the mountain range and see what the world outside could offer.

Having gone through a general knowledge test and a physical examination, seven young Tibetans were finally enrolled.

On August 24th, 2005, the seven Tibetans traveled to Shanghai via Chengdu. When they arrived at the training centre, the faculty and students of over 50 welcomed them at the entrance of the training centre. Classmates helped them to their dormitory by carrying their luggage.

After four and a half months of the training program, the seven Tibetans received certificates and then joined another extensive training program for specific positions.

In June 2006, all of them were sent on a voyage for training. Lhosum was assigned to the ship Minhe. He was supported and encouraged by both the officers and crew on this ship. For instance, the captain assigned an experienced sailor to tutor him and his health and accommodation was also monitored in detail by the captain and the other officers. They sincerely hoped that all their efforts would result in Lhosums quick adaptation to work and life on the ship. On June 7th, the ship sailed to Xinsha of Guangzhou. The captain took him for sightseeing tour of the city and tasted the local food. Like Lhosum Chophel, their colleagues cared for the other six Tibetan sailors, not only during their trainingprogram, but their living conditions as well.

Last spring, having gone through the whole procedure of evaluation and the extensive, experimental on-the-job training program on ships, the seven Tibetan sailors successfully accomplished their training and went home for a holiday. I encountered them while I was conducting my interviews in Lholung County. These Tibetans lives were changed and their employment, earning a fixed income, planted the idea of employment change amongst local herdsmen and farmers. They began to actively encourage their children to go to school.

The economic situation of thefamilies of most of the seven sailors is poor. They have raised their yaks and sheep in a remote area and rarely gone outside. Some of them have only traveled as far as Lhasa. They are fond of sports, including football and basketball, and of course they are particularly fond of singing and dancing.

Lhosum Tsering, with a dark face but red checks, is the most active person amongst them. He was a singer on a one-year contract with a local Langma pub. He always says that its better to do his best if people would choose him to do so.

Lhosum Tender is 1.74 metres high. He has a rather slim but long face. He looks very energetic. When he was seven to eight years old, he tended the familys livestock. Originally, he had dreamed of being a basketball player, but now he wishes to be a good sailor. Tenzin Nyima looks slim as well, but he loves to enjoy music and to swim. Although he did not realize his dream to visit Lhasa, he went to Shanghai, and he always feels excited because he believes he will go abroad. At present, he is working on the ship as technician. Dreaming to be a policeman, Lhosum Tenzin participated in the 2005 national university entrance examination. Unfortunately, a sports university rather than a police university accepted him. He gave up and finally became an internationalsailor for China.

Lhosum Chophel is the youngest amongst the seven, being born in 1987. He looks very gentle. He came to me to have this interview accompanied by his grandmother. He is an extremely good singer and always impressed his audience. While in his hometown, he took various jobs, such as labor worker. He has a very beautiful dream of his future career as a sailor and swears to do his best.

Choning Rachu is a mechanical technician. He looks slim too, but he has a really good family background. He in particular loved painting when he studied in middle school. His drawings usually feature people, birds and Thangka. He had dreamed of enrolling in art universities to study art. He said, as a sailor, hecould also draw his pictures by viewing the sea and the landscape of other countries.

Jamyang Lodro graduated from a secondary computer technical school. He has a good physique. He had even dreamed of being a security officer in the past. He believes his professional field of computers will definitely advance the modernization of ships.Having already left Lholung County over a year ago, Lhosum Chophel is still excited

whenever he hears news from his hometown. It has been four months towards training to be a professional sailor. So thus we have followed the different routes of our seven Tibetans on their voyages in pursuit of being excellent Tibetan sailors.