Rebkong Library and Learning Center Opens in Tibet

[Francis M Hult]

>>From Cultural Survival Quarterly

http://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/csq/print/article_print.cfm?id=5E63DDC2-39C2-44DB-B27E-62126F87877F

Rebkong Library and Learning Center Opens in Tibet
By Sarah Albrecht

Issue 28.1


March 15, 2004

When the Tibet Project, a Cultural Survival Special Project, began in
1990, its ambition was to help meet the needs of over 100,000 Tibetan
refugees. It began with a rug-weaving project that promotes the tradition
of weaving and vegetable-dying in Tibet (see CSQ 27:2). Through this
work, the Tibet Project has been able to fund students at the Srongsten
School, an exile government school in Nepal; build two schools in India;
provide for food-supplement programs; ship textbooks to Nepal and India;
and assemble a computer classroom in Nepal.

As part of the Tibet Projects growing agenda toward empowering Tibetans
and Tibetan refugees, a new building has recently been acquired to serve
as the Rebkong Library and Learning Center in the town of Rebkong,
Qinghai Province.

The library is a new innovation for the Tibet Project. It will "play an
important role in cultural education for the community, report project
coordinators. The library will provide a space for gathering and
learning. It will build community involvement and civil society
consciousness by providing continuing adult education and public access
to information.

The first round of classes in English and Tibetan languages for adults
began in February. With relatively little publicity, the library received
140 applications for participation in the program. Two native
English-speakers serve as volunteer teachers and two library staff
members are teaching classes in Tibetan.

The library staff and volunteers have been working hard to ready the
building for use. The beginnings of a trilingual book collection are in
the works as some books have been purchased. The library will house and
provide access to publications in Tibetan, Chinese, and English.

Community members including farmers, students, scholars, cadres, and
monks are animated about the building and the innovative role it will
play in the Rebkong community. The library is one of Rebkongs crown
jewels, county leaders have said. We should be proud of it.

In the future, the Tibet Project wants to offer computer training in the
Tibetan language at the library. This will encourage and empower local
Tibetans, said Losang Rabgey, Tibet Project co-coordinator. The library
will also facilitate public talks and lectures for the community.

The Tibet Project coordinators hope to increase the use and function of
the library by accumulating more books and publications, building desks
to facilitate English-language classes, and purchasing computers for
instructional purposes.

For more information about the library, contact co-coordinator Losang
Rabgey at rabgey at hotmail.com. Donations can be sent to Cultural Survival
at 215 Prospect Street, Cambridge, MA 02139.

Sarah Albrecht is a Cultural Survival intern.


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