Standing among a pile of golden Tibetan-styled copper barrels,
Cering, a 43-year-old Tibetan blacksmith, hawked with a loud voice
at a fair.
Born into a poor family in the Gonggar County of the Tibet
Autonomous Region in southwest China, Cering found his life changed
at this annual trade fair in 1999 in Shannan Prefecture.
Learning blacksmith skills from his father was the only career
option open to him when he was a child, but the old Tibetan code
stipulated clearly that blacksmiths, together with butchers and
women, were a lower class of society.
"At that time, no one wanted to drink water from the same cup as
me, much less look upon me as a friend," Cering said. "People need
a blacksmith when their shovel is broken or they want a new sword,
but they still look down on us. I've never understood this."
At
the beginning of his apprenticeship, Cering just helped repair
shovels or silver rings on wooden bowls for his neighbors. Step by
step, he began to make Tibetan-style barrels, silver bowls, copper
ashtrays, small incense-burners and some artworks.
At
the Shannan fair, Cering was astonished by the profit a poor
blacksmith could make and realized he no longer needed to live
under the old attitudes.
"To my surprise, during the first day of the trade fair, all my
barrels sold out and I made a profit of 1,000 yuan (about US$120),"
Cering said. "From then on, I have insisted so long as I work hard
to become rich, people's traditional attitude toward blacksmiths
can and must be changed. After all, the strict hierarchical system
of old Tibet has no place now."
Cering said that over the last year, the cash income of his family
was more than 7,000 yuan (about US$843). In addition, his wife, who
is a farmer, also made a good harvest that year.
In
2000, Cering's family moved out of their old adobe house into a new
Tibetan-style multiple-story home, complete with a TV set, VCR,
washing machine and other household appliances.
Seeing the changes in Cering's life, villagers of Gonggar County
have gradually given up their former attitudes, instead regarding
"blacksmith" as a synonym of "richness" and some of them have even
asked Cering to take their children as his apprentices.
"Now, people's lives are much better than before and their minds
are more open, and that is why they are ready to be my
apprentices," Cering said.
Today, being the richest person at the village, Cering is planning
to extend his family workshop into a factory and take on more
apprentices.
(Xinhua News Agency December 24, 2002)