Tsering Junme(1945-)Educational Trailblazer on the Plateau

by+Ru+Yuan

His wedding ceremony in a classroom at Beijing Normal University at the end of 1971 was different from most in a time when newly-weds bowed to an image of Chairman Mao， holding Quotations from Chairman Mao Zedong in their hands. Tsering Junmes union was more like a party， with families and friends from several ethnic groups， including Tibetan， Han， Uygur， Yao， and Kazak， singing and dancing. Tsering and his bride， Zhang Tingfang， expressed their gratitude by joining the celebration.

Born in 1945 to an aristocratic family in Lhasa， Tsering Junme studied at the Department of Education at Beijing Normal University， where he met his wife， who was student in the Department of Chinese Language and Literature at the same time. The couple was the legend of three “firsts” in the history of the university until December 2014 when Tsering passed away.

He was the first student from Tibet， they were the first pair of graduates who chose to work in Tibet， and she was the first female graduate from Beijing to commit the rest of her life to the development of Tibet.

In 1972， he vowed to work in Tibet soon after graduation， where he could contribute his bilingual language skills – Mandarin and Tibetan – to the local educational system. Such a job was not easy to find because it didnt exist.

Today， it takes some 40 hours on a comfortable train to get from Beijing to Lhasa. In those days， the trip took 15 days： They first transferred at Xining， Qinghai Province， and then took a bus along the bumpy Qinghai-Tibet Highway.

Statistics show that during the 1950s， the literacy rate in the Tibet Autonomous Region was only 5 percent of the total population. Only families within a small plutocracy could afford to send their boys to school.

After settling in Lhasa， Tsering was dispatched to Tibet Normal School， which was founded in 1961 with less than 300 students. Only two other schools provided secondary education in Lhasa.

In 1983， Tsering joined the preparation team establishing Tibet University. The university was founded in July 1985， and he was appointed Chancellor， the youngest to hold the position in the country since the founding of New China in 1949.

During his tenure， he stressed inheriting and promoting national culture： He invited a number of academic giants in Tibetan studies to lecture. He also focused on encouraging students to“catch up with the world and learn the most edge-cutting science.”

In December 1992， Tsering transferred to Tibet University for Nationalities in Xianyang City， Shaanxi Province， the first of its kind on the mainland. In September 1998， he returned to Tibet to serve as president of the Tibetan Academy of Social Sciences， specializing in in-depth study of Tibet and its culture.

Actually， he had already started research in this field long before his tenure there. Since 1986， he had published myriad essays and over 10 research studies as well as hosted and served as editorin-chief of academic journals. Moreover， he made visiting scholar visits to many countries including Nepal， Japan， Hungary， France， Norway， Britain， and the United States， exchanging ideas with his foreign counterparts across a wide range of topics touching Tibetan society， culture， education， religion， lifestyles， and folklore.

Tsering made major contributions to literature rescue work. He launched a campaign to rescue and organize librettos and scripts of a ballad version of King Gesar by Sangdrol， an eminent artist in Tibet， drawing from more than 60 librettos and scripts to publish a master Tibetan version.

Tsering didnt stop working even after he retired in 2006. He was quickly invited to serve as the office director of Tibets PalmLeaf Scripture Conservation Leading Group. Palm-leaf scriptures are sutras written on actual palm leaves， a method popularized by ancient Indians from the 8th to 14th centuries. Existing scripts number less than 1，000， 60 to 80 percent of which are found in Tibet. Such relics are clearly extremely-valuable for the study of ancient Tibetan culture， its Buddhist history， and art.

The rescue teams job was to catalogue the palm-leaf scriptures， written in Sanskrit. “I believe that only by promoting our outstanding national culture can we preserve the co-existence of our ancientyet-modern magic land with blue sky， white clouds， and pure air on the roof of the world，” declared Tsering Junme.