Last month, I (Jamin) made the long journey to Yushu prefecture ཡུལ་ཤུལ་་ཁུལ།. From the city, it is 825 kilometers (515 miles) to the prefecture capital of Jyekundo སྐྱེ་དགུ་མདོ་ and 1000 kilometers (625 miles) to the remote town of Sharnda ཤར་མདའ་, the capital of Nangchen ནང་ཆེན་ county. Yushu is a large 6 county prefecture (state) that is roughly the same size as Washington State, but has a population of only 285,000 people. It was the first time in a full year that I had been to this area and only the fourth time I had been to the area since a 7.1 earthquake rocked the region 18 months earlier. Though the official Beijing death toll is at 2700, all of the local government officials agree that the actual death toll is between 19,000 and 21,000.
Rebuilding in process in Jyekundo
The majority of Tibetans in the capital town of Jyekundo remain living in government issued blue tents (top picture). Between 60,000 and 75,000 people have been living in these tents for the past year and a half. Many businesses also are in tents including restaurants, clothing stores and even hotels. Business owners with a little bit more money have purchased temporary aluminum buildings and have moved their business to them. There are an estimated 30,000 construction workers throughout the prefecture and all of them have their offices in temporary aluminum buildings. Only a handful of buildings have been completed. The first snow of the season came months ago in August. When I was there, temperatures were relatively mild with lows around 18F (-8C), but the low temperatures are now dipping to around 5F (-15C) and it will only be a matter of weeks before the lows reach -5F to -10F (-20F to -25F). In the higher elevation settlements outside of Jyekundo, the temperatures can even be colder. Though everyone endured the long, cold winter last year, it is still not fun to live in a tent in these extreme temperatures. Most of us North Americans have never camped even at freezing (32F) let alone -10F.
After the earthquake happened, the government said it would take 3 full years to rebuild the region. The government optimistically hopes the region will be finished being rebuilt by the summer of 2013. However, most locals think it won’t be completed for at least a year later in 2014. The first 8 to 10 months after the quake was spent clearing the whole town of Jyekundo from debris. The buildings that didn’t fall all the way down were torn down. Only a handful of government buildings survived the earthquake. Literally everything else was bulldozed down. An entire town was literally wiped off the map. Since early this year, construction has been in full swing. Tens of thousands of workers have been brought in for the rebuilding. It is hard for be to believe that the construction will be completed by the summer of 2013, but I guess we will see.
The most recent trip I took to Yushu prefecture was for 8 days. Since the area in and around Jyekundo is a huge construction zone, I only spent one night there. Jyekundo is extremely dusty, dirty and has horrible traffic due to all the huge construction trucks going in and out of town. Overall, it was very stressful to be there. It was hard to navigate my way through town since all of the buildings are gone taking away all of the landmarks. Even local Tibetans have a hard time finding specific places with all of the buildings gone. The one night I stayed there, I stayed in a cheap, dirty hotel that was located in a temporary aluminum building. The shared “bathroom” in the back of the hotel just emptied into an open pit. Horrible smells, uncomfortable bed, loud singing from some Tibetans in the room across the hall all equaled to a terrible nights sleep.
Many schools like this one in Rashul continue to meet in tents.
Neighborhoods in Jyekundo slowing being rebuilt
The 8 days I spent in Yushu prefecture were amazing. Most of that time was spent in the remote county of Nangchen, which did not suffer much damage from the earthquake. I will post photos from that region later on. Being in the earthquake zone though is still difficult. It brings back horrible memories of the day the quake happened. It is still so sad to see the town of Jyekundo completely gone….a place that we have spent considerable time in the past 9 years. Our love for this region remains strong and our desire to see the hand of God work in this area is stronger than ever. Pray with us that the rebuilding of Yushu will finish on time and that we will be allowed to return to this amazing area in 2013.
Blessings!