She looks after 42 children in the Tibet Autonomous Region and another 32 in Yunnan Province. But, despite being no blood relation, the children all call her their auntie.
Tendol Gyalzur, a Swiss passport holder, now travels by air between her three homes. But she spends most of the time with her children in Toelung of central Tibet.
Her new home, the Children's Charity Tendol Gyalzur, is a row of two-storeyed Tibetan houses with a small garden.
"I am an orphan myself and I had always thought that one day I would do something for other orphans," Tendol said, while entertaining her guests with tea and sweets in her sitting room.
Tendol cannot remember her exact age or birthplace because she said she was adopted at a very young age. She moved from somewhere in China's Tibet, first to India, and then to Germany and finally settling in Switzerland after she got married.
Decades later in 1990, she returned to Tibet for the first time. Unlike other travelers who were immediately struck by the local religion and landscape, all Tendol could see were street children. She decided to help. "There are orphans all over the world, but I am Tibetan and I wanted to help the orphans of Tibet."
It was neither a rational or carefully planned decision. Her family and friends argued that it was an impossible dream because she was a surgical nurse with little money. What's more, she knew little about the situation in Tibet.
Tendol went ahead. She took her savings of US$26,000 and travelled to Tibet. She went to the Tibet Development Fund in Lhasa and told them she wanted to rent a house for an orphanage. But they told her it would be better in the long run to build a permanent home for children.
They offered her free land for the project. The easy-going Tendol found a place at Toelung, about 10 kilometres southwest of Lhasa and began to build the orphanage in May 1993.
When the orphanage opened on October 6, 1993, Tendol took in seven children. In 1997, the charity built another house in the Tibetan-populated area of Gyalthang in Yunnan Province.
It was not an easy process, Tendol said, but one particular incident made her determined to succeed.
One cold winter's day, she saw two children in rags begging. She took them to a restaurant but the manager refused to serve them. "I was furious and fought with him and forced him to let us in and have something to eat," she said. "From that time on, I realized that the only thing I wanted to do was to fight for the rights of these abandoned children."
Her fight has won support from local people and authorities as well as friends in Austria, Germany and Switzerland. Even her husband, an electrician, has come to join her.
At 61, her husband, Gyalzur Losang Tsultim, is now in charge of the orphanage at Gyalthang. It is also a Tibetan style house that provides shelter for another 32 children.
The couple's own children, two grown-up sons, now work in Switzerland. Her family pictures as well as those of her other children are hung side by side on the wall of the sitting room in Toelung orphanage. There are also certificates of merit, awarded to her children by their schools, displayed on the shelves.
She is happy to see that her children are doing well and wants to make sure that every one of her 74 children - 30 girls and 44 boys - in her home has every opportunity. "I want them to grow into independent people who will contribute to society," she said. "This is the responsibility of every parent."
Tendol has a 29-year-old helper, Tsamchoe, in Toelung, and she calls her the "greatest woman in the world." The children call the quiet and hard-working Tsamchoe their mother.
All the children in the orphanage are assigned responsibilities. The elder ones have to help the younger ones and the little ones are asked to do things such as pick up rubbish. "They learn by example," she said.
Every week they must take at least three baths. "When they first came they refused to do so because they were not used to the habit. Some Tibetans believe that taking a bath would make them sick," she explained.
And a boy from a pastoral background did not want to use the toilet since he was so used to the open countryside. "I told him that there were little insects that wanted him to feed them and he went. He has since changed," Tendol said with delight.
She was also delighted to tell visitors that six of the 42 children in her Toelung home are now studying at middle schools in China's interior - academically successful Tibetan children are often admitted to schools in the interior.
"I am so happy that the kids are tolerant and sensitive. When I am in low spirit some of them will go and pick flowers for me," she said. "I get most satisfaction from them. This is something you cannot buy with money."
(China Daily 07/12/2001)
