Library of Congress

Pemba

The couple interviewed were poor miser who were living on one of Deyang College's estates. The husband (Namgyal Temba) was a miser of Deyang and the wife was a miser of Tashilhunpo Monastery. In this interview, they individually provide details of their family life and their livelihood in the old society, especially what corvée work (ula) they had to do. Although they were a taxpayer household (treba) with land, they could not do the work (manage the land), so they lost the land and became düjung living on the edge of poverty. The husband discusses how their livelihood improved significantly when he was sent by th estate to do road construction work for a Tibetan government-Chinese joint project and received Chinese wages in dayan coins.