In the summer vacation of July 2022, Zhou Shanglin graduated from junior high school and will enter senior high school. Zhou Shangfeng graduated from primary school and is about to enter junior high school. What would be the most meaningful way for them to spend this gap year? Our family discussed and finally decided to go to the Tibetan area of western Sichuan to teach and study for a week to commemorate this gap year.
On July 6, our gap year charity trip started. Our family started from Chongqing and arrived in Beichuan Qiang Minority Autonomous County on the same day. On July 7, we visited the 512 earthquake Memorial Hall and visited the ruins of the old county of Beichuan, which was the hardest hit. In Beichuan Middle School, which was completely buried by the landslide, we deeply paid tribute to the dead and offered yellow flowers to the hundreds of students who were still buried in the ground. Life is so fragile, the unblooming flower youth, fading in the heavy early summer. They are gone, the living should be and cherish.
On the evening of July 7, we reached the ancient city of Songpan. On the morning of July 8, I arrived at the first stop of the tour - the Ruoergai Prairie in the west of Dazhou, and spent a happy day with herdsmen and children grazing in the summer pasture.
We pulled the canopy tent open which we were carrying to shade us from the sun. The grassland wind is too big, repeatedly failed, and finally with the help of the herdsmen, the canopy tent was set up. Zhou Shanglin set up the arrow target and taught the Tibetan children to use the traditional Chinese bow. The herdsmen saw excitedly and joined in. They have good horseback riding and archery genes, and they quickly learned to hit the target with arrows. And Zhou Shangfeng and mother taught the children to do crafts under the season shelter, folding butterflies with colored paper, telling them stories, and give the gifts and books to the children.
My Summer Vacation Voluntary Teaching Trip to Tibetan Areas: D1 Ruoergai Grassland
On the morning of July 9, we went to Shangnami Village, 65 kilometers away from Songpan, to participate in the annual jockey club, and dozens of horses from nearby Songpan, Hongyuan and Norgay counties participated in the race. The competition lasted until the end of the evening, and some students did not wear sunscreen sleeves in order to take photos, resulting in serious sunburn on their arms.
On the evening of July 9, we arrived at the foot of the Xue Baoding Mountain and stayed at the Xue Baoding Temple at an altitude of 3300 meters. Xue Baoding Temple was built in Yuan Dynasty, which has a history of 853 years.
Our old friend Deng Zeng Buddha received us warmly. The living Buddha's home on the hillside next to the temple is a two-story wooden building with yellow, purple and red unknown wildflowers in front of the door, making people unable to step down. The child's mother knew a flower called dandelion, which she could pick for a cold dinner. Here is the back of Jiuzhaigou Huanglong Snow Mountain, because of the tough road, tourists have been rare, is a quiet Xanadu, still maintain the way I saw 10 years ago. In previous years, only a handful of backpackers from Europe and the United States visited. Now it has a high-end inn (above 1,200 yuan a night). This time, there are 35 kilometers of village roads worse and more dangerous than ten years ago. Selfishly, I thought that this might be a good thing, and let it remain so quietly beautiful. But here's the bad news. The road is going to be built next year.
On the morning of July 10th, we came to the second stop of the charity upported learning tour - the village committee of Shangnaami Village. This is a glass roof house built on the slope of the canyon, about 50 square meters, standing on the small dam in front of the door, you can look at the snow-capped Xue Baoding Mountain. The morning sun was warm on the lamb, and the sky was blue as a wash. The canyon is flanked by pine forests, and at the bottom is a clear river flowing down from the snow-capped mountains. There was a sudden sound of a hawk in the midst of all the silence, and so much for the Swiss Alps. More than 9 o 'clock in the morning, more than 10 children from 5 to 15 years old came to the village meeting room to participate in the activity. Zhou Shangfeng gave each child a box of oil pastels, a drawing board and several pieces of sketch paper, and began to teach the children to draw - Golden Beach. Although it was her first time as a teacher, she was not at all timid and was calm when faced with the older grade 3 children. When four or five year old children can't use oil pastels, she goes up and teach them. Finally, Zhou Shangfeng taught the children to use facial tissues to wipe the intersection of the sea and the beach to achieve a gradual fainting effect.
In the afternoon, Zhou Shanglin taught the children a physics experiment class. He used the electrical laboratory he brought with him to teach the children the principles of direct current electricity. When a child asks a question, he answers it. He and the children together to do experimens such as a magnetic field generated when a ringing coil is energized and knocking sound.
My Summer Vacation Voluntary Teaching Trip to Tibetan Areas: D2 Beach Painting in Shangnami Village, Sichuan Province
The next morning (July 11), more children came to the event. Taking advantage of the cool morning, Zhou Shangfeng set up a target outside the meeting room and led the children to learn traditional Chinese bow. At more than ten o 'clock, Zhou Shangfeng continued to give the children an art class. This time she gave each child a box of markers and a Chinese-style round fan. Today she's teaching fan painting. She used a marker to draw beautiful pink lotus flowers and green lotus leaves on the fan. The children were immediately interested, because they were born on the plateau and had never seen real lotus flowers.
At noon, the child's mother took out the pots and pans and various seasonings brought from Chongqing, lined up on the table, and it was her turn to give the children a food class. She taught her children to cook cold Sichuan noodles. After making cold noodles, she taught the children how to make cold noodles seasoning. Finally, the children ate cold noodles with their own seasoning. They all said it was the best cold noodles they had ever tasted in their lives.
In the afternoon, I gave the children a music lesson and taught them to sing "Shangna Mi", which is my adaptation of Han Hong's song "Shigatse". "My hometown is in Upper Nami, where there is a beautiful river. Amamra said cattle and sheep covered the hillside, that is because the Bodhisattva bless. Blue sky with white clouds blossoming, the beautiful river flooded clear waves. The eagle flew over here with wings and left behind a touching song." Such a beautiful hometown, how can not make people love! The children sang the song with great pride. I hope that when they grow up, no matter where they go in the world, they will think of their hometown.
Then I played the French musical film The Choir Boys for the children. Finally, I used the 10 electronic laser rifles I brought from Chongqing to play a live-action CS game with the children. This is the children's happiest moment, the room is full of their laughter.
My Summer Vacation Voluntary Teaching Trip to Tibetan Areas: D3 Watercolor Fan Painting in Shangnami Village, Sichuan Province
On July 12, my family visited the old sister of the Living Buddha. She is a kind 50-year-old Tibetan woman. Her husband has gone, and her children are working out of town. She lives alone in the house. Her home is on the side of a road about two kilometers from the temple. She has a lamb at home. His name is Gree. When the mother gave birth to him last summer, she abandoned him. In order to save her, the sister carried her home and raised her with milk. Gree has since become her pet sheep, will be able to live in old age. I came to see Gree in the fall of 2021, when he was a month old, and brought him a piece of milk. Now he has grown into a handsome sheep, very human.
July 13 is the Risang Day. Xue Baoding Temple is a Bon temple, as the most primitive religion in Tibetan areas, they worship sacred mountains and lakes, heaven and earth, the sun and the moon. The Risang Festival is their most important annual festival. On this day, people should wear festive costumes and pray for the health and safety of the Xue baoding Mountain. The sacrificial ceremony was presided over by the living Buddha Deng Zeng and his elder brother, the living Buddha of Songpan Garmi. After the ceremony, a family picnic was held on the lawn in front of the temple, accompanied by a joyful Guozhuang dance. This kind of unique song and dance is different from other places in Tibetan areas, with cadence, simpleness and boldness, and hardness and tenderness. Everyone had a smile on their face. Maybe this is what happiness looks like. In the crowd of dancers, I met a bunch of children who had participated in our event yesterday, and they danced together to the song, some of the movements were obviously immature, but in any case, these songs and songs will be etched in their blood and passed on to their descendants.
I met the youngest student, Ze Renqing, and her brother Ze Renjia. She is wearing a new yellow Tibetan gown, and every move and style is very star-like. I disposed of a handful of highland barley from her brother, scattered it to the white tower, and turned the tower and simmered with them.
After the sacrifice ceremony, the living Buddha of Gami Temple immediately took several lamas to turn the Xue Baoding mountain, which is more than 5,000 meters above sea level, and took several days to come back. Surprised, I asked Deng Zeng Buddha how they lived on the mountain when it was so cold at night. Deng Zeng Buddha said faintly, at night they hided in the cave, and crowded together to get warm.
My Summer Vacation Voluntary Teaching Trip to Tibetan Areas: D4 Risang Festival in Shangnami Village, Songpan County
On July 14, we returned to Chongqing.
