What would you do if you could start completely from scratch? This is a pretty intriguing question, and one that the people of Jiegu (Skye dgu) town have been forced to answer over the last three years after the devastating earthquake that destroyed homes, lives, and identities. There were limits imposed upon what people could do (they could not, for example, use traditional building materials and build homes in a traditional fashion... i.e. through communal work) as this was the state's great opportunity to remake a town in the image that it wants. Immediately, upon return three years later, one sees that heritage is to be the name of the game. Personally, I don't for one second think that the building materials being used now are any safer or more earthquake resistant than the ones that they had before... but they are supposed to be safer and discussing graft is the target of neither this topic nor the blog as a whole. Instead, I'd like to use this post to point you to a new mini-gallery I've put up entitled: Rebuilding Yushu. The gallery is composed entirely of images of different buildings in hopes of adding a visual element to this discussion. I hope you enjoy it. Firstly, a note about the re-building. All residents were allocated an 80 square meter (861 square foot) concrete pillbox and a very small amount of land. From there, one could purchase more land, contract workers to build you a bigger home, or do any number of things. The 80 square meter homes all share a single floor plan are all painted an almost salmon color, and the windows are made to look "Tbtn." The windows are the only part made of wood, and supposedly woodworkers were brought in from Zhigatse (Gzhis ka rtse) to produce these windows... because everyone knows that Tbtn windows should look the same from Zhigatse (in the TAR) to Qinghai because they are Tbtn and all Tbtns are the same over that region. One of the options in starting from scratch is, I suppose, to take what they give you and say "thank you very much." And some people have done that, but seeing what other families have managed to do, these homes look simply forlorn. They also frequently feature some of the smallest yards imaginable and make-shift fences of anything that's lying around.
Some families have also bought extra land. They may use this extra land to keep the 80 square meter house and add some spaces that can be let out to people trying to start a business. Indeed, landlord seems to be the new occupation of choice for land-owning residents of Jiegu. And why not? The population of Jiegu town has grown at a flat out silly rate. I had the good fortune of seeing a video from the town's new year festival a mere 15 years ago (admittedly that seems like an age in modern China) and was stunned not only by the relative absence of vehicles, the presence of traditional clothes and the like, but also by the simple lack of other ethnic groups. The town was very homogenous back then, and the people with whom I watched the video knew just about everyone who graced the screen. By contrast, I walked through town with the same people and they did not recognize the majority of people. Indeed, it may not be too much of a stretch to suggest that Jiegu has become something of the cultural and economic capitol of the Khams region. T people from all over Khams, including Chab mdo and Sde dge have come to the region seeking both income and a more metropolitan lifestyle. In a relatively narrow valley where land was always somewhat scarce, this has driven real estate prices through the roof. A mu of land in some areas sells for upwards of 150,000 US Dollars (!). By contrast one can travel to a nearby valley--a mere 1o minutes away by car) and find land prices that are a fraction of that. Ok, i have spent too much time on this post already. Hurry up and check out the gallery already!
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
About TimAs you can see elsewhere on this webpage, I conduct research on ethnic minorities in western China. This blog offers semi-academic musings on the minutiae of daily life out here--the sort of information otherwise destined for footnotes. Categories |