Remembering the dead, and the living
Print Edition
Dawa reverentially lights a ghee lamp in her tent at a temporary camp on the China-Nepal border and murmurs a prayer for her elder sister Yangjain who died in Saturday’s earthquake.
Her mother Sonam, 80, sits motionless except for the prayer beads she runs ceaselessly through her fingers.
About 40 kilometers from the epicenter in Nepal, two days after an 8.1-magnitude earthquake destroyed nearly 95 percent of houses in their village, the family is overwhelmed by grief. When their home was destroyed on Saturday, Yangjain, 42, was hit by falling rubble.
“She received emergency treatment at a temporary clinic,” Dawa says. “The doctors did their best, but three hours after the quake, she was dead.”
Despite her grief, Dawa knelt in front of the doctors in gratitude for their efforts.
The quake killed at least 25 in Tibet, mostly in Gyirong, where Dawa’s camp is, and neighboring county Nyalam, both in Xigaze Prefecture. Yangjain was one of three who died in Sale Village, where 16 others were injured.
Across Xigaze, thousands of buildings were destroyed. Landslides have made it difficult for rescue vehicles and relief supplies to reach the places where they are needed most.
Survivors are crammed into 25 tents, so preventing outbreaks of disease is paramount.
Amid the sorrow came new life. Only 20 hours after the first shocks, two baby boys were born in tents that served as makeshift delivery rooms. “Congratulations, all is well,” Dr Migmar Norbu of the Sale Village clinic said as she handed the newborns to their parents.
Dawa retrieved what she could from the wreckage of her home. Now she mutters prayers of peace for her dead sister, for the health of her mother, and asks for better luck for her fellow villagers.
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