Dpal Vbyor, a descendent of serfs, claims he is an example of the real face of modern Tibet. He was one of the first batch of Tibetan students to study abroad at public expense after the start of China's reform and opening up. He was also the first to return home with a doctorate, Xinhuanet reports.
Dpal Vbyor was born in a serf family in Biru County on the northern grasslands of Tibet. Before the 1959 democratic reforms in Tibet, his father was a servant doing menial tasks in a local temple, while his mother worked in the fields for local landlords.
After 1959, Dpal Vbyor's father started work in local post office, while his mother worked on the local People's Commune. "My parents did their utmost to support us through school." Dpal Vbyor relates.
In 1982, Dpal Vbyor entered the Central University of Nationalities as the Top 1 student in liberal arts in Tibet, and majored in Tibetan language and history there. He was sent to work in a research center in the Tibet Autonomous Region after graduation. In 1991, he traveled abroad to Case Western Reserve University to further his studies with renowned American anthropologist Melvyn C. Goldstein. He was awarded a master's degree in 1993 and a doctorate in anthropology in 2001.
Dpal Vbyor said that during his 10 years' study overseas, his impression was that westerners knew little about Tibet, and their beliefs about the region were often based on hearsay and misunderstanding.
"For example, many people believed China was carrying out a policy of forced sterilization and abortion to control the Tibetan population. I thought I had the responsibility to correct such misconceptions," he said.
Dpal Vbyor carried out research on the subject during his college holidays, visiting more than 80 families in 3 Tibetan counties, collecting data objectively and carefully, listening to people's opinions about the government family planning policy. His research led to the publication of his well-known thesis Fertility and Family Planning in Tibetan Rural Areas in a well-known western academic journal.
"The paper was very influential. Over time, attacks on Tibet's fertility policies gradually died away, and my thesis has been quoted many times by academic researchers."
When the government set up Tibetan schools in rural areas, the Dalai Lama and his supporters claimed it was part of a plan to destroy Tibetan traditional culture and brainwash children. So Dpal Vbyor and a professor from Hong Kong University investigated hundreds of students who had graduated from the schools.
Their research demonstrated that the classes had played an active role in promoting traditional culture as well as raising the scientific and cultural levels of the students. "I have tried to show people the true face of Tibet in my writings. I would still be a serf, and would certainly have had no chance to study abroad if there had been no democratic reform."
"My mother often told me that she had never dreamed I would become a doctor after being financed by the government through primary school to university. That could never have happened in the old days."
(China.org.cn by Jessica Zhang, March 30, 2009)