Drolma's Chinese Dream: repaying the country by charity

Sonam Drolma said her "Chinese Dream" was to help as many people as she could to make a difference in their life, the same way as those who had helped her to rise in Beijing.

She paid more attention to the charity cause after running this Himalaya Tibetan Restaurant in Beijing, where many Tibetan college students often visited and took part-time jobs as waiters and singers.

"I only have three full time staff including one chef. The Tibetan students from the Minzu University of China often come for part-time jobs as waiters during their break. Sometimes their classmates and friends including Han and other ethnic groups also come, but they are mostly singers due to the language problem."

Drolma's restaurant often gets busy after lunch till mid-night, especially on weekends. The part-time jobbers sometimes come for one evening and Drolma would pay them in cash right away.

During the winter and summer vacations, Drolma would provide free accommodations for these "children" since not all universities were equipped with air conditions or the central heating while "Beijing is colder than Tibet in winter because Tibet has lot of sunshine".

According to Drolma, June and September are the busiest time for her restaurant, running farewell and welcome parties at minimum price for the Tibetan students from the Tibet Autonomous Region and Tibetan inhabited areas in Qinghai, Gansu, Sichuan and Yunnan provinces.

Some students are from the Nagqu Prefecture in Tibet and they would throw a country-fellow party to welcome the freshers. Then there are Tibetan students from Gansu's Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture and they would like to have a get-together as well.

The new Tibetan college students couldn't get used to the Beijing cuisine so the senior ones invite them to their "Amala's restaurant", knowing that she would offer them food and drinks at minimum charge and let them stay if it's too late and far away to get back to school.

Photo shows Sonam Drolma takes an interview with reporters from Tibet.cn and two Tibetan youngsters Drolma helpes by providing shelter, food and job while they are looking for other jobs in Beijing. Sonam Drolma said her "Chinese Dream" was to help as many people as she could to make a difference in their life, the same way as those who had helped her to rise in Beijing. [Photo/China Tibet Online]

"Actually in 2011 when I took over this Himalaya Tibetan Restaurant, I was also worried about my children. They had all grew up and needed to go to college. After I started this restaurant, I could offer them a home in Beijing, where they could also make a living from taking part-time jobs."

The "children" mentioned by Drolma refers to her daughter and other Tibetan children she has helped.

Drolma has supported many Tibetan children to go to school, some of whom are her relatives' children who have lost their parents, and others are children from single-parent families or welfare houses who come to Beijing for college education.

When we had this interview at her restaurant, a teenage girl and a young boy were cleaning tables in the restaurant. They were two of Drolma's "children" who had just come to Beijing from Tibet after graduating from a vocational school.

Drolma said some Tibetan youngsters didn't want to go to university nor to stay in Tibet with the traditional pastoral life. "I understand. They are just like all youngsters in their 20s, feeling so energetic that they were able to make a difference overnight. But, life is real and is not that easy."

Drolma offers these ambitious young Tibetans shelter, food, and jobs in her restaurant if they want. Some just make it as their home and even look for other jobs while working there.

"I sometimes ask them to get down-to-earth and think seriously about their future plan. But sometimes letting them go with their own desire might give them a chance to see for themselves how capable or vulnerable they are in real life. That helps them understand life, though sometimes with a bitter taste and yet they grow up and really work hard to continue study or take a job responsibly.

Sonam Drolma goes back to Lhasa and stays two or three months in Tibet every summer to pay ritual walks as most Tibetan Buddhism followers do.

"The difference between me and my fellows in my hometown who never step out is that when I chant the prayers for Buddha's blessing on me and all the sentiment beings I have a clear vision in my mind as to how I can and will do to realize these good wishes," Drolma said. "I was lucky and blessed to have come out to see this big world and made a difference here in Beijing, and now I am capable and obliged to return society and my country," said Drolma.