PART-TIME LAWMAKER

 

NPC deputies are part-time, and a deputy to the NPC can be the country's president or a farmer, a celebrated tycoon or a migrant worker, a lawyer or an official.

 

Tashi Yangjen was born into a poor family of wheat and barley farmers, and is currently a township official in the Tibetan city.

 

She was educated in a Tibetan school in Changzhou city in eastern Jiangsu Province and a college in Yueyang city in central Hunan Province, before becoming a primary school teacher in 2004.

 

The government has been sending students from Tibet to study at high schools in inland cities since 1985 in the hopes of training more professionals for the underdeveloped plateau region and boosting Tibet's development.

 

Currently about 20,000 students from the region are studying in high schools in inland regions, including Beijing, Shanghai and Jiangsu. The free education has enabled hard-working Tibetan children to attend school, even if their families are poor.

 

Tibet has a huge task to relieve 690,000 people out of poverty between 2016 and 2020.

 

During the five years starting 2011, Tibet lifted more than 600,000 people from poverty.

 

Tashi Yangjen said she was happy that all the residents in her home village were lifted out poverty last year.

 

BETTER FUTURE

 

There are 56 ethnic groups in China, with Han people representing the bulk of population. Each ethnic minority is entitled to have at least one deputy to the NPC, and Tashi Yangjen is one of about 400 ethnic minority deputies to the 12th NPC.

 

These deputies are active in protecting their traditional culture, in addition to making submissions on other issues, including national development.

 

Padma Chodron, the only NPC deputy of the Menba ethnic group, has a similar educational experience to Tashi Yangjen. Padma Chodron is a township official in Medog County in Nyingchi City of Tibet, and has been focusing on the cultural protection of the Menba, which also has a small population.

 

She submitted a suggestion to the NPC session last year, calling for a county-level institution to protect and develop the ethnic minority language.

 

"Our Menba people only have a spoken language," she said. "If no one speaks the language, many of the traditions of the ethnic group will inevitably disappear."