Commissar,Paljor,at,the,Grassroots_at its roots

　　I haven’t been to Tibet for many years because I am affected by altitude sickness. Yet, this time, with my friend Chen Dan who had asked to join me, I planned to fl y to Lhasa in the middle of March, which is the most diffi cult time in Tibet. The reason why I chose to go there is that this was the only time Chen Dan could spare in the whole year. Our trip to the frontier, according to arrangements by Commissar Wulho Phuchung, would start from Tsang in the worst possible weather, to interview our soldiers and experience the situation when they were busiest.
　　Once out of the plane, we were careful to speak as little as possible and move slowly. After a short meeting with Nyima Tashi, Chief of the Frontier Inspection Station at Lhasa airport, and Ms. Ren Ni, Director of the Information Section at Tibet Frontier Corps, we immediately set out for Shigatse accompanied by Ren Ni. We had planned to arrive at Yadong on the second day but unfortunately we received the news that two soldiers had recently been killed and the Commissar of Shigatse Detachment suggested we change to another route. Therefore we headed for Dram instead.
　　
　　
　　 An Interview with Paljor at Dram
　　I have seen photos of Dram many times and read much about it. What impressed me most was the image of several girls jumping rope on the street in front of the shops. The photographer said that the streets in Dram are quite narrow and there is no space for children to play games or have fun, so they can only jump rope in the limited space of the shop doorways. The story almost moved me to tears, but I still have few imaginations about Dram.
　　On setting out the next morning, we encountered the Spring Plough Festival in the village and didn’t leave until having a good time celebrating the festival with the villagers. From Gangkar Police Station at Nyalam we moved on to join National Road No. 318. It was windy and sandy, with a visibility of only five or six meters. Our driver Xiao Zhao told us that the weather was almost the same all over Tibet at this time of the year; the sky was almost all sand and dust propelled along by a seventh or eight-grade hurricane. Then, climbing the snow-covered mountain, Chen Dan and I began to experience a headache and had to rest and take medication. After a long time the car fi nally reached the mountain pass and began descending. The altitude dropped from 5000 meters to 2000 meters and the landscape changed from icefalls all over the mountainside to green pines and fi rs. My headache alleviated and I had soon recovered by the time we reached the mountain pass where two gigantic pine trees grew and could see the fi gure of Liu Weiqiong, Assistant Commissar at Dram Station, who had waited so long for us.
　　Then we entered Dram.
　　Dram was called Dargjo Karpo in ancient times, meaning “Neighboring Port” in Tibetan. It is located on an important branch road that extends to the old Tea-Horse Trading Road. As high as 2,300 meters above sea level, Dram borders Nepal on three sides and is 120 kilometers from Katmandu and 736 kilometers from Lhasa. Since all houses in the town are built on the slope of a mountain, if you look from a distance the whole of Dram is like a landscape painting on the mountainside.
　　The only street across the town is so narrow that only two vehicles can pass abreast. The buildings, on both sides, are not very high but seemed to threaten to crush us like a meat pie. Our car turned the corners, one after another, as if there was no end to them. In front of us was a long line of Nepalese vans painted in bright colors, trying in vain to hide their worn bodies. I couldn’t help taking many photos to try to catch and keep whatever I had no time to enjoy on the spot in the street. True to its reputation, there is not one piece of clear, fl at space in the town.
　　Around the last corner, into the Nyalam Frontier Inspection Station and down the ramp, we had a clear view at last: a drill ground of about one thousand square meters. It seemed so big! It was immediately clear to me who were Chinese army and who were Chinese frontier police.
　　
　　We interviewed the Sims Azalea Female Service Team and two heroes of the entry and exit inspection team…
　　Our decision to interview Commissar Paljor was due to his manner towards the soldiers at the station. That night, it was he who hosted the dinner. He asked everyone to be seated and dined together. From his words, we could sense a love for his brothers. No one can resist. So I invited him to do an interview and he immediately consented.
　　While I was busy formatting my digital recorder, Commissar Paljor had adjusted our planned route, which would save us almost a whole day. He also drew a map for Xiao Zhao, who was not so familiar with the way yet.
　　 One of the First Tibetan J unior High Students in the Inland
　　
　　Paljor was born in the city of Shigatse in 1974. His father came from Rinbung County, and mother from Lhatse County. When he was two years old, he began to remember clearly the dates and numbers.
　　“I was only two years and four months old when Chairman Mao passed away. At that time, my little brother was only two months old and still in swaddling clothes. He knew nothing but I had formed a deep impression. My mum had hung a portrait of Chairman Mao on the wall. We each wore a piece of black mourning cloth and a white fl ower as we bowed before it. My aunt, who watched me, was just from the countryside and smiled a little at our ‘absurd’ behavior. She didn’t understand it was Chairman Mao who died. My Mum was very angry and gave her a slap. This was still the period of the Culture Revolution and people were very sensitive to that sort of discussion. The matter touched me deeply. My first lesson on Chinese history was the Great Leader Chairman Mao and the Wise Leader Chairman Hua. Mum had taught me history, since Dad had no time.”
　　Paljor’s primary schooling was completed in Shigatse, then, he took a new track:
　　“I happened to receive a special opportunity. What was it? In 1984, according to the spirit of the Second Central Government Seminar on Tibetan Work, two State Councilors, Hu Qili and Tian J iyun, came to Dram for fieldwork. At that time, some border trade was just developing at Dram. Of course, the scale was far from a fi rst class national overland port. The two state leaders found many Tibetan children at the border area were studying ‘abroad’, because, the conditions for education were comparatively poor all over the country - that’s why parents sent their children to school over the border. The two leaders drafted a report to the central government in Dram, proposing to set up Tibetan middle schools in seventeen inland cities. As one of the first students, in 1985, I went to the 14th J unior High School in J i’nan, Shandong Province. After that, many Tibetan children went to school in the inland every year. I was transferred to work in Dram last year, back to the origin of the policy. That’s a magic connection.”
　　Continuing his story, he recalled later experiences and confessed, “My mother-tongue is very important. It’s the best means to learn other languages and do my work effi ciently.”
　　“In 1985, we had a total of 200 children, all Tibetan, arriving at J i’nan. Forty of the students were from Shigatse Primary School. They studied mathematics in Chinese, another sixty of us studied in Tibetan. All of us had to fi nish a one-year preparatory course in junior high school. Those squares and rectangles in Chinese are quite different from Tibetan, so we had to make more effort to learn it by heart, little by little, if we really wanted to convert Tibetan to fl uent Chinese. The other forty students studied nothing new but went over old lessons in the fi rst year. Finally, it was our sixty that were admitted to senior high school or good colleges. Later, all the same, we were more capable, made more progress and developed better after joining the work force. So I think one must learn his mother-tongue well.”
　　In 1992, Paljor was registered with the Central University for Nationalities with excellent academic performance from Beijing Tibetan Senior High School, majoring in Economics, which was renamed “Marketing Economy Management.”
　　 Drafted into the Army as A Graduate in a Hot Major
　　Paljor graduated from college in 1996. At that time, Marketing Economy was a hot major. In Tibet, as was the situation all over the country, there were not so many people studying it. However, work units were all in need of such employees. The Party School of Tibet Autonomous Region offered favorable conditions to recruit teachers, especially the graduates of Marketing Economy Management. With its obvious advantages and priorities, almost all of Paljor’s college fellows were admitted by the School and later they all became associate professors or above.
　　Nonetheless, he caught another opportunity:
　　“J ust when I graduated from college, the Tibet Armed Police was implementing an important structural division to ref ine the responsibility and mission of each department. Including the former People’s Armed Police Corps (PAP Corps), another three were singled out: the Frontier Corps, the Fire Corps, and the Guard Corps. Thus, one corp was divided into four. I had the chance to join in the police army because all the Frontier, Fire and Guard Corps were short of staff and recruiting college graduates. No matter which one I picked up, the offers were all favorable. I could have joined in the PAP Corps directly. But considering Tibet located on borders, especially my hometown (Tsang), the Shigatse area has the longest frontier line in Tibet for most of its history, there was frontier, but the frontier defense was weak. In the past, the Korkhas in Nepal had invaded Tibet in 1888, in and out from Shigatse. They had harassed and attacked the common people, plundered the Tashilhunpo Monastery, and were not driven out until the Qing Dynasty sent General Fu Kang’an’s troops. Such history should never be repeated, as a graduate coming from native origins, I thought the frontier defense should have a lot of responsibility, so I decided to choose the Frontier Corps as my career.”
　　Thus, he was enrolled by the Tibet Frontier Corps ahead of time as one of the fi rst graduates drafted into the army. He said frankly that his choice was much influenced by his father, a policeman. Though he only had a short time with him, the father’s words and acts had deeply touched the son’s soul.
　　 Pic k the Ha rde st A nd Weariest Work Major
　　That year, the Tibet Frontier Corps recruited 24 college graduates in total. The central Corps (in Lhasa) also kept some. Paljor volunteered to go to the basic level, thus he was assigned to the offi ce of the Shigatse Detachment.
　　On October 28th, 1996, Paljor reported his arrival at Shigatse Detachment with another three men. The Head and Commissar of the Detachment had a talk with him, asking him what he could do. He replied that his major was Marketing Economy Management and maybe because it was little related with frontier defense, he could probably do nothing. “What can I do? It’s not easy to tell, really!”They asked again, “Do you have any request?” “Yes”, he answered, “I dare not say it as a request. I would like to do the major work here, no matter how hard or wearisome it is.”
　　For frontier defense in Tibet, if there is no frontier, then there is no frontier management, nor frontier army. So the major work is frontier management. Paljor was just assigned to the offi ce of Frontier Management. At that time, “Nearly every office had only one staff member. My office had the most -two.” He smiled.
　　Paljor had served in the Detachment Office for one year. Then he was sent to work in the area around Nyalam and Dram from J uly, 1997, at the County of Saga in 1998, Dingri in 1999, becoming Head of the Dingri Lulu Frontier Inspection Station in 2000, at Kangmar, Dingkye, Drongpa counties in the following years, and at last, transferred to the central Corps in Lhasa in 2006. In the Corps, he worked as Director of the Frontier Management Offi ce for two years, then, he returned Shigatse Detachment in 2008. In October 2011, he was assigned Commissar at Nyalam Frontier Inspection Station and began to have three stars on his shoulder strap. “I have been working at the grassroots, the front of the frontier. The boundary of Tibet is more than 4000 kilometers, of which Shigatse has 1753 kilometers. Among the twenty-one frontier counties, Shigatse has nine. Therefore, Shigatse is a much larger frontier defense region than where I’ve been working until today. As people say, I have almost taken root at the base station.”
　　Paljor, on becoming rooted at the front, has a strict definition of Frontier Defense. During our threehour interview he took nearly thirty to forty minutes to explain to me the responsibilities, mission and system of the Frontier Defense in order to relieve my ignorance and also in expectation of helping people understand what the frontier police of the PRC are doing.
　　
　　The frontier police having been subordinated to the Ministry of Public Security, follows the order of the People’s Police and the system of active service. When I want to fi nd its full counterpart, Paljor explained, “In the USA, it’s called the Coast Guard, in Nepal and other countries, it’s usually called the Immigration Offi ce. Our frontier defense is something like their Immigration Office, yet, not completely the same, because the Immigration Office, besides frontier defense, also sets up the Offi ce of Entry and Exit Administration, or, by another name, the Foreigner Administration Offi ce, as that in our Public Security Bureau. Our patrol is also different from that of the Liberation Army. They are guarding our territory, but we are keeping law and order, something like the patrol duties of the policemen on the Tiananmen Square, the purpose of which is to prevent and repress illegal activities. In other responsible areas like Dingri or Dram, we mainly offer service in population administration and public security, including handling cases like illegal immigration, boundary markers or post destruction, drug smuggling, and so on.”
　　
　　For frontier defense in Tibet, most outposts lie at the height of about 4000 to 5000 meters above sea level. All year round it’s cold and dry with thin air and is known to be uninhabitable. In the past, all supplies had to be carried by manual labor. Some other places like Drenthang and Metok, though having a nice landscape at a low altitude, are sealed off like an isolated island by ice and snow for more than half a year. Take the town Drenthang in Dingkye County as an example, there is no other village out of the county seat. It will take two days for people to enter or leave on foot. At night, travelers on foot can only have a sleep on a piece of wood or a faggot in the wild like a dog. Along the western boundary line is Drongpa and Saga - where if your vehicle breaks down, you can do nothing but huddle up until you are lucky to meet another passing vehicle and you can ask the driver to take a message for help. If it happens to arrive at a place where there is power and TV in the room, it is truly a bonus. The young soldiers, one group after another, maintain the posts with their youth and their health. But it is not easy for one to stay here for more than ten years. I asked Paljor how he could do it. He answered, “I am a native. It’s what I do and I fi nd the more work I do the more I can learn from it. The work seems endless. These days, no matter if it is a common herdsman or a soldier, every time they see me, they make the joke that I am their family. In 2004, my brother and I had a vacation in Chengdu. One night, I dreamed of the snow-covered highland and the dirt road along the frontier. My brother commented that my fate was destined towards being stationed at frontier defense.”
　　 Bec oming An Ac ting Direc tor on the Way to Sending New Recruits
　　In 1998, Paljor who had just been promoted to Staff Offi cer (equivalent to Deputy Lieutenant) in the Offi ce of Frontier Defense Management in Shigatse Detachment was commissioned to undertake the task of sending new recruits to existing companies. They set out at 8 am from Shigatse on a Dongfeng truck and arrived at Saga at 12 pm, a total of 16 hours.
　　He remembered, “We handed out solid food and mineral water for the soldiers. At that time, the road conditions were quite different from today’s No. 219 asphalt National Road. The old road was dusty; full of bumps and holes with many curves as well. The truck jolted all the way; some men vomited and couldn’t eat anything. When we got to Saga, the soldiers hurriedly ate some porridge and had a rest right away where they could. On the second day, some soldiers stayed at Saga, while I continued to lead the rest towards Drongpa. The altitude had reached 4890 meters above sea level. I found some troops had cracked lips so I took butter tea for them. They didn’t like it because most of them were Han Chinese and were not used to the taste. I told them that butter tea was medicine and if they didn’t have it, they could not overcome altitude stress. They had never heard that before, so they drank it obediently and pulled through from their hardships to the end. I went on bringing the soldiers to the police station at Drongpa. After that, I took another four troops to the village of Changgo in Saga.”
　　“At that time, Changgo Village only had a small yard at the police station, another one for the village government and an adobe wall around the central primary school. Besides that, a few tents scattered here and there, at least two or three herdsmen’s homes, then nothing.”
　　Paljor led the four new recruits to Changgo. “Their director and instructor both went to the Corps for a meeting, so I was required by my office to replace the director for a while at the station, responsible for daily work. Changgo has an altitude as nearly 5000 meters. The wind begins at 12 am almost every day. The wind is so strong it covers all the sky and shuts people in their houses. Soldiers can only drill in the morning before 12 am all year round. The station did have a TV, but the power depended on a solar dish. We wouldn’t use any power in the daytime so that we could have enough electricity to fi nish our duty and then watch TV at night. A transceiver at the station was the only tool to communicate with the outside world, no telephones or anything else. It is a fact that the soldiers could only look at each other in the day and count stars at night.”
　　Taking advantage of his mother tongue, Paljor soon became familiar with local herdsmen and common people. He organized a New Year’s Eve Party and gathered all 20 men at the station, headsmen from outside, and also invited some businessmen from Kham. Some of them brought snacks and soft drink as their contribution. Everyone had a good time and enjoyed the party that night. The station had a simple VCD, and a microphone, which, together with the TV, made a simple Karaoke. A soldier who had been in the army for two years, sung the song Return to Lhasa very well at the beginning, but slowly went quiet, because he had never been to school and could not read a single character. That touched Paljor deeply. Besides this, the local folks also surprised him, “The common people couldn’t dance to Disco, but they watched and listened at first. When they caught the rhythm, they danced even better than our soldiers. It was amazing! Everyone had fun at the party.”
　　Everyday, Paljor took his 20 men for laboring in the village, repairing the road in the morning, and playing a role of regulator to improve the environment. At that time, the local people used to burn dung from cows or sheep and dump the burnt dung everywhere. When the wind blew in the afternoon, the ash would fi ll all the sky. So the soldiers opened up a special area for dumping rubbish. In the afternoon, he organized the soldiers to read the newspapers, or if it was nice, playing basketball. At night, they watched TV or played cards. “Sometimes there was really nothing to do, so I even thought of making them knit sweaters.” A month later, the director and instructor came back, so Paljor, the acting director, had fi nally fulfi lled his task.
　　 Olympic Security Guard at the Height of 6000 Meters
　　Before the Olympic Games were officially launched in 2008, our government, to meet its commitment to the Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games, decided to relay the fl ame up Mount Qomolangma. It was known that the Olympic Torch team had been harassed, the torch damaged and even profaned by spit from the Dalai Clique during its relay around the world. They were also responsible for the serious violent attack of March 14th in Lhasa. In such a situation, the mission became more difficult. To ensure the flame could successfully climb to the peak of Qomolangma, man-made damage or disturbance must be guarded against on all sides and watched closely, as well as natural factors like the weather. Major General Wulho Phuchung, Commander General of Tibet Frontier Corps, stepped forward and represented the Corps to accept the task. To make sure that the Torch could be relayed to the top of Qomolangma safely, all soldiers in the detachments were sent to Mount Qomolangma to guard all the mountain paths and prevent any sneak attack by overseas separatists.
　　Paljor was sent to stand at the post on the ChineseNepal borders that was as high as 6000 meters on Mt. Cho Oyo. “There are about ten of us at the post, most of us are Tibetan since the altitude is so high, our Han comrades really cannot bear it. In that life-threatening zone, we pulled spread the riprap (material used to protect shorelines, streambeds, bridge abutments) under the melt ice and snow to clear an area for setting up our tents for a campsite. Our tents are the small ones used for mountain climbing. The size is just big enough for two or three people sleeping inside. We were on watch there and reported our work by satellite phone. Every morning we had to keep guard and patrol around the mountain pass. If we were thirsty, we would grab a handful of snow into our mouths. If hungry we’d gnaw on a condensed biscuit. In the afternoon we were free and everyone danced in the snow with music from our cell phone. There was no signal on the mountain but we had many songs stored in the phone, especially the Tibetan Gorchom circle dance. We didn’t feel tired because we were used to it. In order to keep touch with the outside world, I bought two radios and listened to them everyday, no matter in Chinese or Tibetan, so we knew everything happening in the outside world.”
　　A few days later, Chen Dan and I entered the post accompanied by Liang Feng, Squadron Leader of the Dingri Frontier Maneuvering Group. The snowy Mt. Cho Oyo, as high as 8201 meters, stood above us, only 2000 meters higher than our position. Liang Feng showed us the camp, patrol route, and the starting point where they had carried the supplies on their backs all those years ago. From one bridge four kilometers away, soldiers had to carry up rice, fl our, coal, gas, and all those necessities of life on their backs (plus such equipment such as a generator). All these provisions were placed in the forbidden zone camp of nearly 6000 meters. We had a chat with the soldiers in their new built camp, experiencing their life and work. They were very pleased by our arrival and heated some milk for us. Our truck had just brought the milk there. Even so, soon we were affected by altitude stress, our lips were splitting and our heads ached due to the shortage of oxygen.
　　In that year, Paljor and his colleagues had stood fast in the post for more than a month. Working and laboring, they lived there everyday (including singing and dancing). They also melted the ice and snow to cook hot pot in the snowfield. When the task was over, everyone had a different face. Paljor said,“Our skin didn’t peel, but chapped like a tortoiseshell, both lips and face. One day after returning to Shigatse, I met a female classmate from J unior High School on the street as I accompanied my wife shopping. She walked up to us and talked to my wife pleasantly, but she didn’t look at me at all. It turned out that it wasn’t because she didn’t like me, just because she failed to recognize my face. She had thought that my wife had taken a laborer home for hard work!”
　　
　　 The Frontie r De fe nse Sha ll Ha v e Its O w n C ulture
　　In October 2011, Paljor was transferred to Nyalam, taking the post of Commissar at the Inspection Station. From then on, he began to do work related to ideology and politics. He said, “Man is the most fl exible factor. There is an old saying that goes: ‘It’s hard to know what people think, no one knows what the other’s idea is.’ If you want someone to listen to you, in modern colloquial speech, put your idea into his head, it will be quite hard. Chairman Mao has done this work, also Comrade Deng Xiaoping, now I am learning to do it well.”
　　What Frontier Defense does everyday is not only entry and exit inspection, but also the frontline of the anti-secession battle. “People associate with each other; that’s the process of ideas bumping into each other, if you don’t have a strong standpoint, hold a distinct principal, you will quite possibly be corrupted and recruited to serve the enemy camp, causing loss to our country.”Paljor said, “We who do the border work at the front line must have a firm political standpoint. The frontier defense in Tibet is the frontline to fight against the Dalai Clique, especially the Tibetan comrades who share a common national psychology, language, customs and habits… and share a native land with the overseas separatists. They are apt to be persuaded by our enemy just like those in Mongolia, Xinjiang, Fujian, and J ilin, as well as Liaoning of the Northeast.”
　　“Some people are very talented, but they have a problem with their minds. They believe in the information from outside and the rumors spread by the Dalai Clique. Actually, someone like Lozang Shenga hasn’t lived in Tibet, or even been to Tibet before. How much does he know about Tibet? He has no affection for Tibet, or the people here. He is merely passionate about his so-called cause and eager to score propaganda points. I listened to and read his speech on March 10th; it was full of lies. Who has ‘extinguished the Tibetan culture?’ If you really go Tibet and have a look, you can fi nd the culture preserved very well. Some Tibetan comrades are infl uenced by such nonsense, how much or to what extent it is dependant on each one’s consciousness. You can hear the overseas broadcasts here, but how do you think about it is quite different. I have to listen to it critically as what the opposition has said, because my work requires me master their position. Other people might be listening to the radio for a different purpose. My superior gave me the position I have today, indicating that I am reliable in politics (I am bragging a little) and I was correctly brought up and educated by Tiananmen. So, if we don’t remain alert, a little carelessness may make us slide to the opposite side. In a word, we have to enhance our work on ideology and politics into the future.”
　　Now there is a Police Camp Forum in the Dram Station held on Thursdays, to encourage the soldiers go and deliver speeches. There is also a movie show on Saturday. By daily careful work, they can gradually consolidate the young soldiers’ vigor, thoughts and concepts together. Paljor said, “In the past years, companies have learned from the management of the army force, so Master Sunzi Art of War was still considered a classic. Now, on the other hand, the army also accepts the experience of business management. For instance, now we are building the professional ethics of our frontier defense in Dram, e.g. the design of our station emblem and the creation of a station anthem. We are still in the process of developing the means and continuing our practice. Last year, the Sixth Plenary Session of the Seventeenth CPC Central Committee pointed out that it is necessary to develop and promote the people’s culture, so too our culture of frontier defense.”
　　One of our state’s entrances is the Inspection Station of Dram. It is as famous as the 1st Door of the Himalayas. It receives the most entry and exit applicants, occupies the biggest volume of business and is the most famous. To build a united and effective team, Commissar Paljor took the leading role and personally drafted the Song of the Frontier Guard in the Snow Land:
　　The sunshine is on the Himalaya, on curved rivers and magic valleys,
　　We have our sacred post here, our coordinate of youth.
　　Welcome, all friends and guests, with our smile like Sims Azalea
　　Beasts of wolves, tigers, leopards, we have hard edged tools,
　　For our mother’s peace, we guard here.
　　For snowy highland’s harmony, we guard here.
　　Ah, we are guarding the snow land. We are guarding the snow land.