Has Nole in Rendoma changed the Tibetan area? | Guo Jingya column

From 2018 to 2019, I visited six traditional villages as an independent writer and interviewed five people who were actively involved in the place. In order to revitalize the sleeping resources in the countryside, they have made different attempts and efforts.

These people are not all entrepreneurs who return to their hometowns, nor do they go to the countryside to pursue an idyllic life. On the contrary, they face specific and realistic problems every day in the countryside. And those setbacks and struggles also make their stories more three-dimensional.

After that, I also started my own journey into the countryside. I no longer acted as a bystander, but directly participated in issues related to the countryside. Through close observation and conversations, I gradually established my understanding of the current situation of rural China. know.

I realized that the impact of human practice on local communities is far from being able to be fully presented by doing one or two interviews and writing an article of 10,000 to 20,000 words. Changes happen dynamically. For a place, what is needed is Long-term continuous attention and records.

In this column, I will set the time back to 2018, starting from the first village I entered, and write down my observations and thoughts of visiting villages in the past few years. I will continue to set off, be present, and write, hoping to record the traces of the changes of the times on them for the people living in the countryside and for the minority groups in small areas.

Text | Guo Jingya

Ritoma Village (Ritoma) in Zuogaidoma Township, Hezuo City, Gansu Province is located in the Amdo Pastoral Area on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. There are 6,000 yaks and 20,000 sheep scattered on this vast grassland at an altitude of more than 3,200 meters. The 1,500 residents in the village are herdsmen.

On the road from Hezuo City to Renduoma Village, the big slogan "Precise Poverty Alleviation" on the roadside pillars shouted silently, expressing strong determination to the people passing by. In places where the power of tradition is relatively strong, such as some ethnic minority villages, it is difficult to get rid of a life of poverty, which means that people may have to leave the familiar way of life and change their deep-rooted thinking habits.

In 2007, Dechen Yeshi (Dechen Yeshi), who is from the United States and of Tibetan descent, founded the social enterprise Norlha in Renduoma, employing local herdsmen to weave clothes made of yak wool by hand, helping the local people get rid of poverty and providing employment opportunities, and the ecological imbalance caused by overgrazing of grasslands has also been improved. As an accompaniment to Nole, the modern way of life has also challenged the nomadic tradition of Anduo herdsmen.

I went to Renduoma once in 2016 and 2018, and had a brief exchange with Deqing Yeshi. I observed the changes that Nole brought to Rendoma, and watched how it slowly penetrated into the lives of local herdsmen.

plateau

Starting from Hezuo City, take a section of the county road first. The cement road is flat and wide. At a fork that is easy to miss, turn right to the next section of dirt slope, which is the road to Renduoma Village. Rendoma Village is located about 29 kilometers east of Hezuo City, Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, and it takes about 40 minutes to drive from Hezuo City.

This is my second time to Gannan. Compared with two years ago, Hezuo City has not changed much. There are still few pedestrians on the street, there is still a smell of coal smoke in the air, and there is still no hot breakfast at eight in the morning. The plateau hasn't changed much—what else could be new about the plateau? The grassland spreads out on one side, black yaks and white goats are scattered among them, the mountains are green, and the grass has begun to turn yellow. The air was cool and the clouds were low.

At the end of September, the weather forecast called for snow soon.

The road is being repaired and the cement pavement is to be paved. When I came here two years ago, the road was long and narrow, and I had to lean to the curb to give way when meeting cars. There are also sheep that need to give way. They come slowly from the front against the light, rolling up the dust, and the shepherd walks behind, carelessly.

When the road is done, more people will come, and perhaps encourage more people to go out, but certainly not with sheep or horses, but in a faster way instead.

Fast is the speed China needs. On the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, from one place to another, the appearance of modernization recedes from the car window, the roads are wide and straight, and mobile phone network signals are available everywhere, infrastructure, schools, health care, in some areas Uniform housing developments can even be seen.

The government has provided new arrangements for herdsmen, giving up their herds and land, and living in new houses under unified development. They can receive some monthly subsidies. The government is not interested in the traditional nomadic culture and way of life. The first step in building a new socialist countryside is to shape Tibetan areas according to their imagination of living and working in peace and a unified model. But there is no need for grazing and labor, so many herdsmen have nothing to do. Some cannot speak Chinese and cannot find a job, so they can only chat in restaurants all day long to pass the time.

Of course, nomadic life is hard work, with wolves attacking, bad weather, and contagious diseases wiping out entire herds. Many people really don't want to continue being herdsmen anymore. They have mobile phones, they can access the Internet, and they know what life is like outside. Young Tibetans also want to enter a new era instead of staying in the nomadic tradition.

Dorjee Rinche is one of those who have found work who speak English and fluent Chinese. He was lucky, because he was educated and could speak English, he got a chance to work with Deqing in Rendoma village. These people jumped over the dragon gate, but they were a minority after all, and most of them could only drift with the crowd and go to the construction sites in nearby counties to earn a living. Opportunities like this don't come often. There is no odd job to do, and they still have to go back to herd herds, or go back to a life of doing nothing.

Most of the workers working on the road from Zuogemanma Township to Rendoma Village are women, wearing wide-brimmed hats, masks, and old aprons, and their hands in work gloves are skillfully shoveling cement.

In Tibetan areas, men herd herds while women do almost everything except herds. "During the summer months, they have to get up at three o'clock in the morning. Their day starts with milking the cows, and then they have to make butter, dry the cheese, and pick up cow dung..." I once heard in a speech in Deqing She described the life of women in Tibetan areas. That was the situation she witnessed when she first went to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in 2004. More than ten years have passed, and the situation has not changed much. We passed many villages on the plateau along the way. In the highland barley fields by the roadside, most of the figures bent over and working were women, and some women came with young children on their backs.

This appears to be a phenomenon in China's remote minority areas. After the girls finished the nine-year compulsory education, some of them stopped studying. They stayed in the village, married early, became mothers at a young age, and did everything at home and in the fields, weaving and mending.

In early 2016, I met a Wa girl in Manguo Village, Gengma County, Yunnan. The girl was seventeen years old and worked in other places for three years. She first danced in Hunan, but because she couldn't earn a lot of money for her family, she went to Guangzhou to work in a mobile phone accessories factory. On the day I saw her, not long after the Spring Festival holiday, she said that she had resigned and did not want to find a job for the time being, so she was resting at home. Ten days later, she asked me on QQ if I had time to drink her wedding wine. She told me that the man just came to the house to propose marriage a few days ago. She seemed very happy with this arrangement in her words.

I was very surprised, but I still congratulated her and told her that I couldn't go to her wedding because of work, and I expressed my regret. Yet I actually experienced a tsunami inside. A young man who has walked out of the mountains, after seeing more possibilities in life, returns to the village, and starts his own family at an age that is not legally or intellectually suitable for marriage. This choice itself It was difficult for me to understand for a while. I really want to know what made her retreat. Is it the competitive pressure at work, or is it because the pace of modern life is too fast for her to adapt? But I was just looking at the fuss, and I was not interested in learning more about her story.

After that, I had the opportunity to interview a clothing brand in Shanghai. It cooperated with a Dulong village in Yunnan to redesign their ethnic costume Dulong blanket, which was hand-woven by local women and sold to people in the city. Brand designers also said similar things. She went to the local village and saw those women with their families. When she asked about their ages, they were actually only around 30 years old. "Married very early, in their teens," she said. "Looks like an older person."

These ethnic minority women with rural background have nothing to do with the awakening women's sense of self-determination in the city. They still follow the set of moral principles required of women in traditional society: serve their families and dedicate their lives to it. If they want to break through the difficulties of life, they will follow their husbands to the city to make a living, but for some ethnic minorities, integrating into the city is more difficult than farming and grazing. In Tibetan areas, women are generally less educated, and it is difficult to find a job outside the village. Many people have never thought of going outside. They hope to spend more time with their families, which means that they spend most of their lives. To spend in migration and milking, and pass this kind of life from generation to generation.

The real problem to be solved is how to allow them to stay and live a more decent life than before.

Ren Duoma on the Gannan Grassland has his own answer.

Nole

No matter when you come, Rendoma is always very quiet. When you turn off the car engine, only the sound of the wind is left. There were very few people walking around. One or two people who looked like they were going home, with hay on their backs, walked past a row of prayer wheels with their heads down. turn up. A mother and daughter took a young child to have lunch on a hill not far away. They faced the mountains, which were rolling and rolling, almost touching the low clouds.

I stood on the hill, feeling small and alone. The world is endless, and there are still mountains behind the mountains. Continue to go east, three kilometers, five kilometers, there are only mountains, grasslands, cattle and sheep along the road, and a small river that freezes in winter. I thought I would see some tents, but there were no such things. Rendoma is like a full stop, followed by blank pages.

The days here are probably very monotonous. The scenery, food, and life content are repeated year after year, which is long and boring. How strong a person's sense of mission is in order to convince himself to stay on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, to stay in this vast and empty place, and to create with nothing. Looking at Rendoma on the grassland, I couldn't restrain myself from thinking about this question:

"What made you finally decide to dedicate your life to this place?"

Deqing Yixi was only 22 years old when she first came to this grassland. Like most college students who just graduated, she felt uncertain about the future, but she had a vague hope in her heart. She wanted to make a different things.

In 2005, Deqing met Yidam Kyap at Labrang Monastery in Xiahe County. Yidan was born in a local Tibetan family in Gannan and grew up on the grasslands. Before meeting Deqing, he had traveled to many countries. I have never talked with Yidan, and I am not familiar with his story. I only know that after that encounter, they quickly developed into boyfriend and girlfriend, and then the two settled down in Rendoma.

"Stay here forever", this is Deqing's promise to the local people in order to do that different thing.

In 2007, Deqing founded a hand-woven workshop in Renduoma, using yak cashmere to weave scarves. This is a workshop composed of herdsmen, and their handmade scarves have won the favor of many luxury brands in Europe. As the workshop shifted its sales focus from OEM production to domestic retail in 2013, the name of the workshop began to be heard by more and more people-Nuole, which means "yak" in Tibetan.

Today, the German youth is over forty and is the mother of three children. She has already done that different thing.

In the winter of 2016, in order to do a special topic on traditional Chinese handmade fabrics, I went to Renduoma, an altitude of more than 3,000 meters, to interview Deqing. I was greeted by Daoji Renqing, who was already the sales manager of Nuole. When I arrived, Deqing was still in a meeting. Daoji took me to the production department to wait, and brought me a cup of hot coffee—a cup of instant coffee.

It was a house made of wood, with several rooms in a row at the back, and a public area in the middle, which was very large and crowded. Everyone is busy with something at hand, their heads are buried low behind the computer, and the atmosphere is quiet and tense. An ordinary work scene, almost the same as the office scene in the city. A work schedule is posted on the wall, documents printed on A4 paper are spread out on the table, samples are neatly hung in a row of cabinets on the wall, and employees come in and out. The only difference is that the Tibetan faces behind the computer, the hands that used to hold the whip to drive the cattle and sheep, are now typing on the keyboard, drawing Excel tables, and formulating production indicators. I have never seen such a picture. I noticed that the work notes posted on the wall were printed on the same paper in Tibetan and English.

Unlike the production sector, which is all men, most workers in the technical sector are women. Dressed in Tibetan costumes, they skillfully operate looms, sewing machines, or roll and squeeze blanket-sized felt on pressurized beds. I shared this finding with Dougie, who confirmed that 60 percent of the workshop's employees were women. "Men are basically in management," he added.

I asked him how many employees the workshop currently has. "There are more than 120 people, all of whom are herdsmen in the local pastoral area." He said.

"Have any employees resigned to go back to pastoral life?" I asked. I wonder if people on horseback are so easily tamed by the nine-to-five life.

"Yes." Daoji replied affirmatively, with no intention of whitewashing. According to him, around 2009, the market for cattle and sheep was very good, and the price rose a lot. Many employees thought that the benefits of grazing were better, so they resigned and went back to grazing. The flow of personnel did not stabilize until 2014. "The salary we pay is very good and stable." He said, "so everyone has adapted to this working environment and atmosphere."

I like chatting with Dao Ji very much. He has a bookish look and a slight accent in Mandarin, but he speaks very fluently, with a polite and gentle tone, and he is always smiling. He joined Nole in 2007 and was one of the earliest employees. He has participated in the whole process of the workshop's development over the past ten years and must have witnessed the changes in the village. I asked this question, about change.

"The first one is because there are many local people in this yard, which affects the whole village. For example, there are many small shops here, all of which are opened because of this factory." He said, "There are about a dozen people in such a small village. storefront."

I have already obtained this answer from Deqing's earlier speech. In another change, Dougie mentioned employee hygiene. The workshop has a system that requires employees to take a shower every week. "There is no need for a system (requirement) now," Daoji said with a smile. "Everyone is used to it, and sometimes they have to queue up if they want to take a shower."

He gave no other examples. "These are the effects," he concluded. In his opinion, these two changes are enough to answer my question.

So, what did the herdsmen here think of Nole at first?

"Many people didn't understand at first," Daoji replied. "They felt that this job had no future, so many people resigned and went back to become herdsmen. They didn't understand this kind of work because they had never seen people who lived like this."

What now? He continued: "It's been (a) long time now and people can see the benefits."

I admit that I once placed an abstract romance on the nomadic life. The vast grassland and the freedom on horseback are yearning, but this is only because of the distance between me and this kind of life. There is no responsibility for imagining, but there is a price to be paid for living in it. In the harsh plateau areas, the price is poverty.

For nomads eager to escape poverty, grazing cattle or working in factories is just a means of making a living. The maintenance of culture is metaphysical, and people are realistic. When it comes to lifestyle changes, they first look at whether there is any benefit, and then they want to determine whether it is sustainable.

This is why initially no one believed Deqing's claim that yak wool could make a difference. They don't want to believe it, because it's something they don't even need. Yak wool, called "Khullu" by herdsmen, is the thinnest hair on the yak, which grows near the head and neck of the yak. This layer of fluff, which is less than 20 microns in diameter and no longer than 4.5 centimeters in length, will fall off naturally in spring. Because it is too thin, it can only be collected bit by bit by hand. After collection, the market price of one kilogram is only RMB 20 or more. Experience tells them that this is a thankless business. You can't go wrong with experience.

Dhunko is the son of Deqing's father's friend. Unlike Dhunko, Dhunko has neither education nor literacy. Although his heart has been moved by Deqing's ardent lobbying, he needs an equivalent exchange from Deqing. If becoming part of modern society meant first giving up the herd—the herdsman’s only possession—it was an exchange that made Sanji uneasy. To make herdsmen voluntarily give up everything to follow this adventure, Deqing needs to pay more than the project itself. But Sangji didn't say it clearly, he just waited and watched silently, until one day, Deqing revealed the matter between her and Yidan intentionally or unintentionally. Commitment, so I made up my mind to leave my hometown, and went to Cambodia and Nepal with my wife to start textile studies with Deqing.

Driven by Sangji and his wife, herdsmen joined Nuole one after another, including Daoji. Now, the employees of Nuo Le work from 8:30 am to 5 pm every day, with a one-hour lunch break at noon, and can get a minimum salary of more than 2,000 yuan a month. They no longer have to worry about the safety of their herds or the harvest. Dodge told me that there are a lot of people around who want to work in the workshop, but they can't provide so many jobs.

Women are the group that benefits the most. An article on the Nole official account describes the daily life of female employees. They would ride motorcycles to work, and in their spare time, they would take part in English classes organized by workshops, or practice yoga or play basketball. During the long winter vacation, they would fly to Lhasa with their families for pilgrimage.

"Economic independence allows them to have greater autonomy, and some women have gained greater freedom in marriage." The article cited the examples of several employees, some of whom are single mothers, and their stable jobs allow them to raise them with peace of mind Children can even afford the life of their parents. Their hands were freed from milking cows and picking up dung, and after hard technical training, these hands began to weave their new life.

Deqing Yesi

I met Deqing in the production department. I stepped forward to introduce myself - after two years of study, my English has improved a lot, and I am no longer stage frightened in front of her - she smiled politely, but from her eyes, I realized that she was not Can't recall our meeting in 2016.

People from other places often come to Nole to visit, and many reporters come here to interview one after another. I am not the first, nor will I be the last. I even think—and still think so today—that I may be one of these thousands of miles. The worst kind of people who come all the way to find out.

I didn't ask any innovative questions, and I could draw the answer myself from Deqing's response. For her, the questions I asked were just retelling to another face her own story that she had already repeated countless times. I looked at her and wondered, is she going to get tired of interviews like this? She did look a bit tired, and she had a few small pimples on her cheeks and chin—an allergy from the dryness of the altitude—but she obviously didn't put much thought into her makeup either.

What made you finally decide to dedicate your life to this place?

I came to her with this question two years ago. She was sitting on the couch across from me, with a table between us. Her eldest daughter, Norzin, was naughty like a little monkey, running in and out of the house, busier than the others at the scene. I later learned that she found three newborn kittens that morning, and she brought them in one by one, and showed them to everyone in her arms. The kittens were dirty, but she didn't care. Sangji, the production manager, also interrupted an interview. With a document in his hand, he came over to ask Deqing for advice. They talked in the local Tibetan language.

Deqing is half Tibetan. Her father is from the Gannan Plateau, and her mother, Kim Yeshi, is of mixed American and Greek descent. She grew up in the United States, and when she graduated from college, her mother asked her to visit her father's hometown.

It was my mother's idea to collect yak wool. Kim has more than 30 years of experience in textile research in Asia. She believes that yak wool has great potential in business. Although its color and finish are slightly inferior to cashmere, it is the same weight The underlying yak wool products are stronger than cashmere products and have better warmth retention due to the higher density of fibers. Through it, the sustainable development of Tibetan areas can also be achieved, she is sure of her judgment. But Deqing felt that this matter was very boring, yak wool, weaving...these words were far away from her life, and what she was interested in was shooting. Kim then bought her a good camera and encouraged her to go to Gannan Tibetan area to shoot a documentary. In exchange, she also helped to collect some yak wool.

It's hard to say exactly what made Deqing finally give up the idea of making a documentary, and turned to build a yak wool textile workshop. Maybe, as she said, it was the local poverty that impacted her heart, and the living conditions of herdsmen women made her restless, or it was Kim who guided her to see the threat of overgrazing to the environment, or the situation in herself. She is driven by the blood of the Tibetans—more likely the sum of these factors, and others I don’t know about, which Deqing simply sums up as “Sense of purpose” .

"This is the education my parents gave me." When I asked her when she found her inner pursuit of "the meaning of life", Deqing replied, "They often told me when I was young , you have to find purpose in life. My friends were more inclined to find a stable job when they graduated from college, but my parents taught me the opposite. They told me not to live such a boring life. They said that life The moment is fleeting, to find meaning. But when I was young, I didn't understand how to find purpose in life. When I came here, I realized that this place is something I can change, and I found that I have the ability to Do something different, at that moment, I found my 'meaning of life'.

"When I first got here, I asked many herders if they would like to change their lives. Change is a very big decision for them, if you don't let them continue to herd, there must be a place to hire They, they get paid from there. So I realized that it's not something where you come in for a year or two and then you're like, 'This is too much work, I can't keep it up' and you leave. Because People trust you, and you are here to change their lives, so I have to be ready to change my own too. I make a promise to myself not to take their life lightly, but to do what I can Do it. I think that's why I decided to stay here for the rest of my life."

Deqing’s remarks are not new to me. Before and after my interview, she has said them in different ways in front of different cameras, but even so, these words still echo in my heart from time to time . Sometimes I also think of some questions that I want to ask Deqing again, such as this one: If you did not come to do this when you were in your early twenties, but encountered such an opportunity after you were 30, what are you still doing? Courage to start?

This is not an easy start for anyone. Go to live in a culturally completely unfamiliar place, re-learn the local language, master new skills, train a group of illiterate employees, learn the operation and management of modern enterprises, and learn to face the perfunctory and cold reception of superior luxury brands.

Deqing took it all. This is why I look at her differently. She ran around to build workshops, trained employees to use textile machines, instructed them to make sample forms, and visited customers one by one with a full box of samples. No one realized—even she herself ignored that she was just a young man who had graduated from college for three or four years, and more people regarded her as a modern version of Don Quixote.

"When I was in my early twenties, because I was too young, I was easily influenced by other people's evaluation. I always felt frustrated and lost courage. Although my parents always encouraged me, when I told others my ideas, they Everyone thinks I'm crazy, everyone thinks I'll give up after two or three years, no one understands me." Deqing said.

The hardships and loneliness she has experienced are beyond my comprehension and unimaginable. Of course, I also felt poor and lonely sometimes, but in the face of the big proposition she faced, my hardship was like drizzle falling into the river, not worth mentioning. What she did was groundbreaking and benefited from being young, she was tirelessly cutting through the thorns. When encountering cash flow problems, find out where the cash can come from. When encountering promotional problems, let more people know about you and let them find them.

"In 2013, because we were reported by more domestic media, when people travel, they will come here to visit and buy, thus slowly starting the domestic retail business. Similarly, because of media reports, some designers Also come to seek cooperation in fabrics.”

Deqing told me that in 2016, Nuole opened a WeChat official account and a WeChat store, and turned around to face the national market. Four years have passed, and they mentioned in an article on the 2019 year-end summary that Nole’s market sales have maintained steady growth, and its products have been sold to more than 20 countries and regions around the world through e-commerce, completely getting rid of the brand Dependence on customers; this year, Nole Yunnan Shangri-La opened a new store, and opened another physical store on Barkhor Street in Lhasa, which is their sixth store. Interestingly, all of Nole’s directly-operated stores are located in Tibetan areas. This is not a commercially logical approach. Such a deliberate effort is more like expressing one’s own position and attitude—grow here and serve here. .

I once thought that "change" was the core of all the efforts made by Deqing on this land, but when I came to Gannan for the second time and came to Renduoma, I realized that what Deqing was doing was not to overthrow the old Order, no earth-shaking changes have taken place here, Nuole is more like a new branch from the original branch. What it does is to rediscover the value of cheap local raw materials and to give dignity to manual labor. Career Opportunities. Deqing's efforts are to reshape the value of "human" bit by bit on this new branch.

At 10:30 in the morning, the plateau sunlight came in from the window, and a red face of a two or three-year-old child poked out from behind a loom. When a stranger came in, Yuanyuan's head immediately hid back. The child's mother is busy sitting in front of the loom. The movement of the loom drives the warp and weft threads to shuttle and rub, raising light and fluffy wool scraps. On a nearby loom, wool spun from rare white yak wool is threaded neatly on the eyelets, waiting to be woven into a scarf.

This is Nuole's textile workshop, where about a thousand scarves are produced every month. For a workshop with more than fifty workers, such output is not too high. However, the production process of a scarf is subdivided into as many as a dozen. From spinning to weaving, all are manually operated, and the production capacity has reached saturation. In this case, "if orders increase, more manpower will be needed, but the problem is that too many employees will make it difficult to control the quality of products. Even now, during internal quality inspections, it is often found that there is room for improvement." Daoji explained road.

Of course, machines can be used instead of handwork to achieve larger-scale production, and only one problem needs to be solved-a larger market. But in Nole, the choice of machine or manual is not just a consideration of scale and production capacity, it is a value proposition.

In Deqing's view, compared with machines, the biggest advantage of handwork is its flexibility. It allows each series of products to try new changes, which can be technological innovations, and can be made by combining yak wool with a small amount of silk. or Alpine wool for more fabric effects and color variations. "Different from machine manufacturing, we don't want to make a lot of the same things, but only want to make special styles, about ten to twenty pieces for each style." Deqing believes that this will improve the market competitiveness of Nole.

In Nuole’s mini-program store, a natural-color yak cashmere scarf sells for more than 1,100 yuan, while another scarf blended with silk and yak cashmere costs nearly 6,000 yuan. "When you do something of real value, (the product) will become very expensive." Deqing knew it well. However, purchasing the best yak wool from herdsmen at the highest price, paying reasonable wages to workers, and using environmentally friendly but expensive imported dyes are all must for Nuole.

"Professional people outside feel that we still have a lot of shortcomings in terms of operations." Daoji said. I stood with him in Nole's warehouse, surrounded by a warehouse full of neatly stacked goods. "Some things in their opinion are not suitable for better development, but for the region, it should be done in this way. The concept of our brand is to focus on the interests of local employees. The balance between business operations and employee interests, we It needs to be found. It's important."

For this reason, Deqing treats investors cautiously and slows down the pace of enrollment expansion. She took the trust of the local people seriously and did not deviate from her original ideal. The 2019 year-end summary also mentioned that "Nole is the largest provider of employment opportunities in the local area", "a total of 132 employees work here, 110 are locals from Rendoma Village, and 67% of them are women". In 2019, the workshop paid 4.5 million yuan in wages and benefits throughout the year; on the other hand, these herdsmen went to Nuole to work, "reducing the burden of eating grass for at least 1,250 large livestock on the grassland."

The market also rewards her with customers with high purchasing power and loyalty. In the mini program store, a herdsman’s hand-woven scarf priced at 10,440 yuan was marked as “sold out”. The product details of this scarf read: It was hand-woven by Nuole artisans for 15 days. And in the product evaluation of a black yak velvet round neck cloak priced at 3780 yuan, a customer left a message saying: "I bought a real gray cloak four years ago, and I didn't hesitate to buy one this year when I saw this color. It really didn't disappoint, great value for money." The customer labeled the poncho a "good deal."

As a former partner of European luxury brands, Nole naturally positioned itself as a high-end brand after transformation. The high pricing comes not only from the game of cost and profit, but also from the awareness and confidence of its own value. This confidence is also fully reflected in Norden's sister brand "Norden Camp".

In 2013, Deqing and Yidan built Nordan Camp on the Sangke Grassland in Xiahe County to receive friends, clients and travelers from all over the world. The camp is nearly three hours' drive from Nuole Workshop, and the grassland where it is located is the winter pasture of local herdsmen. When the herd moved to the summer pasture in spring and summer, the 7 solid wood huts and 6 hand-woven yak hair tents that made up the camp were rebuilt on this vacant grassland; , the traces of human habitation will be removed together with the camp buildings again, and the grassland will be restored to its original appearance, just like when the herd came last year.

In order to do everything possible to reduce the impact of human activities on the environment, Finnish-style dry soil toilets are used instead of flush toilets in the camp. After using the toilet, residents have to spread a layer of dry soil to cover their excrement, and then there will be a special person to clean it up; inside the room There is also no running water, and residents either scoop water from the water tank for simple washing, or walk to the public shower to take a bath. The inconvenience of these accommodations once caused a lot of criticism on the Internet, but the camp's exploration of the harmonious coexistence between man and nature has made more people willing to pay for the high price.

On the reservation platform, the room rate at the Nuordan camp ranges from more than 1,000 to more than 6,000 per night. This price includes a tent (or log cabin) and three meals a day (one for each). At the beginning of March 2023, Dao Ji sent out the news of the open reservation of the Nordan camp in the circle of friends. In less than a month, all the room types of the camp during the Labor Day holiday were sold out.

Daoji Rinchen

When I saw Dao Ji again in 2018, his hair was much thinner than two years ago, and it was piled up in a mess on his head. He still had a familiar smile on his face, but there were more wrinkles.

"Busier," he said with a smile, "a lot of things. There are new products every season, shooting, shooting and all kinds of different--outside shooting, indoor shooting--and then Picking photos, retouching them, writing copywriting, putting them on shelves, promoting them, and after-sales service..." Every time he talked about a work item, he tapped on the armrest of the chair to emphasize the invisible words in the air symbol.

We are sitting in the exhibition hall of the workshop, surrounded by many yak wool products. After Nole started to build its own brand, its product line inevitably enriched. In addition to scarves and shawls, it also added clothing series and household items.

"In the past, we mainly did supply. It was just a factory. We received orders by mail and production was the most important thing. Now we have to do everything by ourselves. In fact, it would be easier to continue to supply brands, but the trend has changed. Although it was already We have achieved the most high-end customers—supplying Hermès, but frankly speaking, our products are of high value, and most of the profits are taken by those brands, so it is better for us to make our own brand.” Daoji explained the decision at the time change.

In any case, they keenly kept up with the times and established an e-commerce platform very early. The official website also opened a shopping cart function for foreign buyers. At the same time, they also opened physical stores in Lhasa, Xiahe in Gannan, and Shangri-La in Yunnan. , Agents have also been developed in Beijing, Shanghai and other places. In the past, there were not many opportunities to face customers directly, only to receive them when brands came to inspect. After transforming into retail, it is necessary to establish one-on-one contact with customers. Two years ago, Daoji set up a WeChat group for domestic buyers of Nole, to release product and store information and answer questions. When I saw him again, the group already had more than 120 members.

At the beginning of 2018, Dao Ji went to the United States, and he participated in the Tibetan Entrepreneur Scholarship Program of the University of Virginia in the United States (the program will be discontinued after 2019). I asked him what he learned there. "Actually, I didn't learn much." He laughed and explained: "(The project) is mainly aimed at people who are start-ups, for example, how to manage employees in the early stage of establishment, how to start promotion, how to use social media... mainly Speaking of these, basically I have experienced in Nuole.”

Having said that, the trip to the United States brought him many new experiences in his life. Together with 12 other students from Tibetan areas, he lived in the United States for more than 40 days, and celebrated his first birthday party with them. After finishing his studies, he checked in New York, Washington, Los Angeles , San Francisco, Seattle, etc.

The Tibetan Entrepreneur Scholarship Program at the University of Virginia is mainly aimed at Tibetans living in Tibetan areas of China, helping them improve their entrepreneurial capabilities through education and training. Applicants must have a corporate background or at least a plan to start a business. According to the introduction, the course content includes how to write a business plan, how to improve management skills, how to develop a media marketing strategy, how to make an effective budget, etc.

This project is very attractive to young Tibetan entrepreneurs. One of the main reasons is that the university bears all expenses such as round-trip air tickets and board and lodging during the study period. The only really restrictive application requirement is that students must have strong English skills, because the six-week training course will be taught in English. Even so, competition remains fierce. "I applied for three years in a row, and I didn't pass until the third year," Dodge said.

Daoji was born in a small village near Labrang Monastery. His family was very poor. He learned to take care of cattle and sheep by himself when he was 6 years old. When he grew up, he went to Xiahe County to find a job. It was 2002 and he was 16 years old. Because I didn't go to school, couldn't read Chinese characters, and couldn't speak Chinese, I couldn't find a decent job, so I had to go to the construction site to dig pits and move stones, and I was paid 13 yuan a day. In order to earn more money, he picked up scraps near the construction site during his breaks, and spent a year in Xiahe like this, until he discovered that learning English could earn more money.

At that time in Tibetan areas, learning English was a very popular thing. Before 2008, foreign-related management was relatively loose, and many foreigners came to Tibetan areas every year. If you learn English, you can work as a tour guide and earn money from foreigners. It will be a considerable income and your life will be more decent. At that time, one of his roommates was learning English. He observed the other party and felt that he was no worse than him in learning, so he decided to learn it. The English training class is expensive, as high as 53 yuan per month, but he thinks the investment is cost-effective, so he begged his family to allow him to participate.

But the training course didn't take him directly to foreigners. One day six or seven months later, Dao Ji accidentally read a report about the Jigme Gyaltsen Welfare School while surfing the Internet in an Internet cafe. Jigme Gyaltsen Welfare School is located in Guoluo Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province. The special thing about this school is that when enrolling students, Tibetans who are out of school or over-aged are treated equally. The students in a class range from teenagers to forties. More importantly, All admitted students are exempted from tuition, miscellaneous and accommodation fees.

Perhaps it was because he lived near the monastery since he was a child, met many monks, and felt the charm of knowledge from their words and deeds. Daoji vaguely felt that learning could make him a different person from his family and neighbors. He found out that a relative in Xiahe happened to know someone who was studying at Jime Gyaltsan School, so he passed the guidance of the other party and was admitted to the school.

Those who don’t know a word start to learn from the first grade, the third grade is equivalent to junior high school, and when they graduate from the sixth grade, they are at the level of a technical secondary school. Dodge studied there for three years. On the eve of graduation in 2007, a teacher from Rendoma Village mentioned Noorak to him, and introduced him and his classmate Jampa Dhundup to work in Noorak, who later became the purchasing manager of Norak.

"There was no interview when I came here, and I started to work when I came here." Daoji said, "There was nothing at that time. In July 2007, the loom was airlifted from Nepal. There were about 20 workers, and they were the first batch to participate. People who trained, set up tents over there, and weaved in tents. I changed a lot of jobs (positions). I don’t know what I did at the beginning, but I did everything anyway. At first, I had to do research—this village How many people are there, how many yaks are there, etc. - I did these in the first year, and started to manage the warehouse in the second year. I also managed the design department and worked as an assistant in the production department. In 2012, I started to do sales.

"When I first came here, I was very unfamiliar with everything, especially computers and mobile phones. I only started using mobile phones in 2007. The first one was Nokia. Later, Deqing went abroad, and when he came back, he gave it to everyone in our management team. Brought a htc, that was great! Now I use the iPhone.

"I used to be a shepherd, and then I went to school. The school is very hard, the competition is fierce and strict, but life is very happy. After coming to the workshop, I feel very free here, and I can learn new things. I can get a salary. In the first month, I got a salary of 1,200 yuan, which is very good in the local area. I used this money to buy a lot of clothes, the foreign brand, The North Face. My English was better before. , When I met foreigners when I was studying, I would take the initiative to talk to them. Most of them wore clothes of this brand. I think the clothes and shoes they wore were very good-looking. I have a good impression of this brand. I hope I have money I went to buy clothes of this brand, so I ran to buy it as soon as I got my salary. At that time, there was no online shopping here, so I went to the store in Hezuo City to buy it. It must be fake! But I didn’t know it at that time. But the second month At the beginning, I didn’t know where my salary went, and it’s the same now, the salary disappeared as soon as I got it, it was all used up, and I don’t know where it went.”

From two temporary military tents to today’s workshop covering an area of three to four thousand square meters, with an exhibition hall and different production workshops, I asked Ji, as an employee who participated in it from the beginning to the end, whether the workshop happened through something that impressed him, such as some challenge or difficulty. He told me that he just accepted the job he was offered without thinking too much about it.

"I didn't think I would stay here for a long time at the beginning. I took a step at a time and had no plans. But later on, I became more and more confident and stayed like this for more than ten years."

"What gave you confidence?"

"Not sure. It's just a state of working every day."

In the first few years when the workshop was first established, employees were like sand on the beach. Once the market for cattle and sheep rose, they would be taken away by the tide. Dao Ji couldn't tell the problems that the workshop had encountered, but in fact the biggest problem had been revealed by him inadvertently. How to make a group of herdsmen believe in this and be willing to stay and adapt to new changes, this is the biggest problem Nuole has ever encountered.

This problem is resolved here by Dao Ji. Part of the reason why he chose to stay here is because he gave up grazing from the moment he went to Xiahe at the age of 16. What he longed for in his heart was a modern life, and this job provided him with a path. In the ensuing years, though, he found himself thinking a little bit differently.

"At that time I was interested in a more modern life," he said, "but after entering Nuole, I felt that I could combine the traditional way of life I was most familiar with when I was a herdsman with a modern working state. Together, it makes me feel like I can stay."

After I published the article interviewing Deqing two years ago, I encountered readers asking me the same question on different occasions: a modern enterprise develops in a traditional nomadic village, which brings the nine-to-five The modern working method has changed the nomadic life of the herdsmen. Is this change that seems to damage the tradition good or bad?

Of course I brought this question to Dougie. I asked him how he would answer these readers' questions if he were there.

"Number one, it doesn't change the most fundamental parts of life," Dodge said. The source of income has changed their working status, but they can still have the most important part of their family and the most important part of their beliefs; and we have not changed the environment, they can live in an environment from childhood to adulthood , have a stable job and earn money.”

Nole does not reverse the local traditional culture, on the contrary, it creates stronger bonds between people, families, beliefs and communities, which is the core of Dodge's explanation. He did not mention the group of herdsmen, or the disappearance of their identities. It seems to him that this is not a problem. The important thing is that the emergence of Nole has enabled some herdsmen to live a dignified life. Daoji once again emphasized this point with his plain tone, saying: "Especially the change of quality of life, what Nole wants to do most is this, not to change their original things. We try our best to make the working conditions of the workshop A little better, such as providing heating, reducing work hazards, so that employees can work comfortably."

In 2010, Daoji started a family in Rendoma Village. His wife is a local who has been herding herds since she was a child. Later, the family sold the cattle and sheep. Without the conditions for grazing, she came to Nuole to work. The wife's mother passed away very early, and her father later died in an accident, around 2009. She also had a younger sister, but married to another place. "We weren't married at the time, and we didn't think about it, but suddenly she was alone, and we got married," Dodge said.

After they got married, they moved into his wife's house and renovated it briefly. When he mentioned that he did not buy air-conditioning and heating, heating was still based on fire, I asked him curiously, did the employees not buy some modern electrical equipment to improve their lives because of their increased income?

"No, the cost is very high. The summer here is not particularly hot, and the winter is relatively cold. Everyone still makes their own fire."

"What do you like to do outside of work?"

"Play basketball." He blurted out, "We hold basketball games twice a year. This year is special. This year there is a game for the disabled. Other times I just read books and watch movies. Now I have a daughter who is in the second grade and is studying locally. , I have to supervise her homework every day, it is very hard, it really takes a long time, at least two or three hours a day. There are a lot of homework in the elementary school here, but fortunately, the burden has been reduced last year."

"Kids in the city have to go to training classes to learn Mathematical Olympiad and musical instruments. Will you let your daughter also attend training classes?"

"We are very relaxed here. I personally don't care about this, and I'm not a very strict parent. It depends on her own talent." He suddenly seemed to remember something, and then said: "My daughter said that when she grows up, she will do Bread and cakes. She likes to eat them very much. She didn’t know about bread and cakes when she was a child. She said she wanted to make a barbecue, but when she saw the cakes, she felt that making cakes was a bit more advanced than baking.” Talking about his daughter, Dougie He smiled happily, with joy in his eyes.

"Have you thought about what you're going to do at her age?"

"No, no, I was grazing at that time, and thought I would spend my whole life grazing."

I remembered that two years ago, Daoji and I stood at the entrance of the production department and chatted. He told me that in the past, what everyone yearned for was to live outside, but he has changed a bit now.

"I like this environment very much now, this pastoral area. I think I can still be a herdsman—when I'm older."

His tone was sincere, and it didn't sound like a whim to me. Although I don't know if he has already started preparing for this ideal, I am sure that the identity of a herdsman has another meaning in the context of this sentence. It is no longer a specific way of making a living, but a symbol of spirit. Daoji seems to have walked a long way, and finally returned to the place where he started. This time, he is going to return to tradition, be free, and ride his horse and whip against the wind of the grassland.

end

On the second day after I left Rendoma, it was snowing on the Gannan Plateau. At that moment, I was visiting Labrang Monastery. Young monks had just finished their classes. In the snow. I think of Dao Ji, who grew up in a small village nearby. Although he did not receive compulsory education from the state, he always had the enthusiasm for learning, and that enthusiasm led him farther than many people. He's long since stopped buying The North Face, and every time I see him he's wearing an old yak fleece top with pills on the shoulders and sleeves. He has a new understanding of the pastoral area where he grew up and a reconciliation with his identity.

I also thought of Deqing. Thirteen years ago, she met Yidan here, and this encounter changed the fate of many local herdsmen. What surprised me most about Deqing was the contrast between her small size and the enormous strength she possessed. Although I didn't have any great questions to ask her—and I didn't ask any great questions—I'm glad I made the decision to meet her. The only question I brought with me, after seeing Deqing, I had my own answer in my heart. She spoke with a calm expression and firm eyes, and I believe I saw innocence in that. This is the answer I got.

The snow has been falling, and the tops of the dark blue mountains in the distance have been covered with white. The snow on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau will keep falling until next March. When it is the coldest, the Deqing family will fly back to the United States, and return to Renduoma after the holiday. Her children call Renduoma "home", they speak the standard Amdo Tibetan language, and they have playmates from childhood to adulthood in the village.

The life of Deqing's family in Rendoma is very simple. Summer is the most comfortable season of the year due to the short period of direct sunlight. They will go out for a walk at night or watch the basketball games organized by the staff; on weekends, they will go to Camp Noordan with their friends. "The camp is closed for the winter, so we spend more time here."

I remember the day I first came to Nole for an interview two years ago, it was a clear and cloudless winter day. At the end of the interview, the bell rang in the workshop, and the work in the morning came to an end. The employees came out of the room one after another, with relaxed and happy expressions, and some of them walked arm in arm. Their goal is the canteen of the workshop.

Dodge invited me to dine with them, not in the cafeteria with the staff, but in the log room. At that time, I was secretly worrying about how to solve the lunch problem, and when I heard Daoji say this, I happily agreed. A young Tibetan boy diligently cleared the large table in front of the sofa, spread a few plastic placemats, set the dishes and chopsticks, and then brought two steaming pots of noodle soup.

Dining together were several managers of Nole, and Sanji was among them. None of the managers can speak Chinese very well, so I exchanged a few words with them through Daoji's translator. I introduced myself and the set of magazines I brought called "Salt Bar". After listening to the introduction, Serwo Kyap, the accountant of Nole, said that he had seen a movie also called "Salt Bar".

"What kind of movie is it?" I asked him very curiously.

He looked a little embarrassed, and said with a smile: "It's a movie about the underworld."

Everyone present was amused.

I ate two bowls of noodle soup in a row, and my body immediately warmed up. The two big bowls of food were quickly divided up, and the Tibetan boy just now came to clean up the dishes. After a short break, I said goodbye to Dodge. Many men stood at the door smoking and chatting to pass the lunch break, while women sat on chairs outside and whispered. The afternoon sun on the plateau shone on them, and it shone on me.