Sat, February 13, 2010
BEIJING, Feb. 13 (Xinhua) -- More than 800 Tibetan students at a Beijing school celebrated the eve of Tibetan New Year Saturday by dancing and singing folk songs.
The Year of the Iron Tiger in the Tibetan calendar begins on Feb. 14 this year, exactly the same date as the Spring Festival, or Lunar New Year. The coincidence has happened 18 times since 1950, according to experts of astrology and Tibetan calendar calculations.
The teenage students from Beijing Tibet Middle School got up at 6 a.m, dressed in traditional Tibetan costumes, and exchanged new year's greetings amongst themselves and to their teachers.
According to customs of the Himalayan region, they offered white, scarf-like hadas, yak butter tea, barley liquor and "Chema", the most important festive snack that is stuffed with buttered highland barley and fried wheat.
Dressed in her most beautiful costume, Sichung Drolma from the rural Ngari Prefecture joined her peers to perform a Tibetan group dance "Tashi delek", meaning "hello", or "good luck" in Tibetan.
"I talked with mom and dad over the phone this morning," she said. "Every family in our village have telephones, TVs and washing machines."
Students at Beijing Tibet Middle School have all stood out among their peers with outstanding academic performances.
As most of them are from remote rural areas with little access to public transport and even a one-way trip home can take two weeks, they all stay on campus during the winter holidays, attending classes and going on sightseeing tours organized by the school.
The students enjoy a longer summer vacation of up to eight weeks.
More than 4,100 students have graduated from Beijing Tibet Middle School since it was established in 1987 in the north of Beijing, near today's Bird's Nest, a centerpiece of Beijing's Olympic venue.
At least 98 percent of the graduates have entered college and more than 2,000 of them have secured jobs back in Tibet.
The school is one of many Tibetan schools that have been established in 26 Chinese provinces and municipalities since 1984 with central government spending.
All Tibetan students are free to compete in annual recruitment tests of these schools after they finish primary school in their hometown. Their tuition, food, lodging, medical services and other daily expenses are all covered by the government.
Like people of other ethnic groups in China, the Tibetans also mark the holiday with fireworks, red couplets with rhymed phrases and feasts. As well, they patrol communities with torches to scare away devils and pray for good luck, while those in farming areas attend horse races and tug-of-wars.
The Tibetans enjoy a 10-day holiday for the new year, from Feb. 13 to 22.
