Chapter 37 near horizon

Tibet, for me in my childhood, was a distant and vague place. When I read the geography of my country when I was young, I knew that there is a Tibetan plateau in the far west of the motherland. It is not only the highest area in China, but also the roof of the world.Then, why the five-color national flag (red, yellow, blue, white, and black) at that time represented the five ethnic groups of Han, Manchu, Mongolian, Hui, and Tibetan, and why did it use black to represent Tibet?I do not understand! During the Anti-Japanese War, a friend went to Tibet from Chongqing, and he told me that he wanted to pass through India.Why do you have to go through foreign countries to go to your own country?I also do not understand.

In the early fifties, I saw an English novel called "Lost Horizon".I have forgotten the author's name and the stories in the book, but I only remember the mysterious and beautiful paradise mentioned in the book, which is Tibet in China.In short, Tibet before liberation was always a distant and mysterious place to Chinese and foreign people—except for the Tibetan people and the foreign invaders who were waiting around. After liberation, there were more and more reports about Tibet in our newspapers.We kept hearing Tibetan songs on the radio, saw Tibetan dances on the stage, and saw the scenery and characters of Tibet in movies and pictorials. However, my acquaintance with the Tibetan compatriots has been overwhelming. It started in 1955 when I lived in the dormitory of the staff of the Central University for Nationalities in Beijing.

I didn't teach at the Central People's College myself, but when I went out, I would always meet some students and cadres wearing Tibetan costumes on campus.Especially those lesbians' braids tied with colored threads, long sleeves, colored bangdian (aprons) around their waists, and black or red felt boots, which stand out in the green trees. , I always "see off", I can't forget this beautiful impression. Since then, I have had the opportunity to meet several classmates.What impressed me the most was Gesang Zhuoga.She is studying in the dry training class and is in her thirties.Her parents were serfs, and she was the only surviving child of theirs who was born in a sheepfold.But life was not happiness for her but a disaster.She "served" the children of the serf owners from the age of six or seven, and suffered abuse and humiliation.The little masters who were several years older than her often pushed her down as a horse, pulled her hair, and whipped her.Once, when she couldn't bear it any longer, she took off her tattered Zomba (felt boots), stuffed the accumulated moldy tsampa in it, and fled for dozens of miles barefoot with dry food, but was chased by the serf owner. went back.He tied her to a ponytail and dragged her back.On the icy and snowy mountain road, she rolled all over her body with bruises, and her fingernails and toenails were also worn off... As she said this, she held my hand tightly with her rough, callused hands :

"Without the Communist Party and Chairman Mao, where would our millions of serfs be today?" Today, in addition to Kelsang Zhuoga, I have made many Tibetan friends, such as: Tsomo, a deputy to the National People’s Congress who graduated from the People’s Academy, Pan Duo who climbed Mount Everest, singer Tseden Drolma, and others Ngapoi Tedan Zhuoga, the wife of Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme, still has a photo of her and I in front of the former residence of Chairman Mao in Shaoshan in my diary. My age and physical strength do not allow me to go to Tibet, but over the years, many of my Chinese and foreign Chinese and young friends have been to Tibet, and they came back and boasted to me about the towering snow-capped mountains on the roof of the world , crisscross rivers, dense forests, dotted with lakes... these always make me yearn for.When I saw the Potala Palace, Linka, Princess Liu, etc. on TV and pictorial magazines, especially when I read various reports about the current situation in Tibet, I was happy to know that our hardworking and brave Tibetan compatriots are entering Tibet The compatriots of all ethnic groups in China are working together to develop its endless treasures in the mountains, forests, lakes and seas of this treasure land.

Recently in the editorial department of "People's Literature", I read "Ode to the Hot Field" written by Comrade Yang Xinghuo, which talks about the Tibetan people's thermal power erupting like a hot spring to develop this hot field not far from Lhasa... From my friend In our conversations, from books, newspapers, and TV broadcasts, Tibet, which was still vague in my mind more than half a century ago, has changed from "thousands of miles away" to "close in front of my eyes", and its mountains and rivers are getting closer and closer. Real and beautiful, its characters grow more and more vivid and distinct.

I hope that the comrades of "Tibetan Literature and Art" will collect and publish more local Tibetan folk stories, scripts, and songs; People who visit this treasure land can also enjoy everything that people who live and travel in Tibet get.December 27, 1979