Tibetannet

Life just like a tragic comedy

Zhailin - Wangduo still has a picture of himself during his pursuit of knowledge as a young boy in India.

Only after retiring in 1992 did Wangduo start translation and creation of literature, yet all of the results he made can not be separated from the legendary life he lived before retiring. His life has been like a tragic comedy. 

“The most blessed period during this live on the stage was my days being a student, and at that time I had no troubles,“said Wangduo. He was born in Tibet’s Gyangze town to an aristocratic household. In 1946, Wangduo became one of the 10 students sent to India to the Saint Joseph middle school for study exchange by the Kashag Tibetan government.

”The winter break has three months, I did not go home but instead stayed at school to study, and jump a year ahead”, He recalled that “in 1953, this was just two years after when I was studying and returned to my hometown.”

Wangduo had no idea returning to Tibet he would play one role after another on the stage of life. “Before the creation of Shakespeare didn’t you do all kinds of work? I had been a meat shop apprentice, and I was a teaching in the school in the village,” he replied.

“I never thought I would encounter so much trouble during my worklife, the troubles were big, but I learned a lot of things.” In the very beginning, Wangduo was a math teacher at the first elementary school newly built in Lhasa. After Tibet’s democratic revolution his main work was serving as a translator for Tibet’s interior region executive department. After that, in Shigatse he taught Tibetan language and accounting courses for a period of time. Starting from 1978, Wangduo was transferred to the Autonomous Region Teaching Committee Teaching Materials Editing and Translation Department, and thereat did seven more years of Tibetan language teaching material editing and translation.

“Being mediocre and not much could be learned, yet including during the “cultural revolution” I also learned a lot of things.” Talking about the Cultural Revolution, Wangduo got more excited stating that: after experiencing the “cultural revolution” for the rest of my life I swore to myself that I would never inflict harm on to the happiness of any other person’s life.

He did not talked a lot about things during the “cultural revolution”, he just confessed that it was hard to forget one heart song, that was when he did translation for the 10th Lama and the pre-elected U.S. president Jimmy Carter. “When eating lunch together with them, I suddenly remembered the interior features of a latrine closed during the ‘cultural revolution”. At that time his quiet voice increased to a volume eight times as high, and with a bitter laughed said: “the changes have been big, the changes have been big.”

In 1985, because of job requirements, Wangduo was sent to the Department of Tourism of the Tibet Autonomous Region and was assigned as the Deputy Director of the Hong Kong Tibet Qomolangma Tourist Co.Ltd. and by the second year, he was in charge of developing overseas tourism resources. He held this position up until 1992. During this period of time, he was called “the founder of Tibet Tourism” by some people.

“The time when I was working in the Department of Tourism was the most interesting period of time in my life.”, said Wangduo. Once again he mentioned a significant scenario: the first day when Wangduo, who had not spoken English for almost 30 years, went to work at the Department of Tourism, he could not speak one single simple English word, he was not even not able to say “Hello” when seeing a foreigner saying hello to him. It was a bit embarrassing. But he made progress very fast, and his memory in the past was fully restored just within less than a half of a year.

During those days, Wangduo had chances to go abroad. He has been to the U.S., Canada, Bolivia, Nepal, Hong Kong and Macao. “ Starting from the first day of work, you could study much more than what you had studied in school.” Wangduo emphasized. 

Zhailin Wangduo in the study at his house

Nowadays, Wangduo is living a peaceful life. Sometimes he has lectures in Tibet University. He has been doing 6 lectures during these years, including two lectures in English, three lectures in Chinese and one lecture in Tibetan language. His lectures mainly talk about translation methods and the way to be a human.

When his legs feel good, he will take a walk in the compound of the Federation of Literary and Art Circles, or drink some tea at the Tibetan-style house compound and read newspapers, not accessing to the internet as well as not using the cell phone. There is a board with an inscription hung on the wall of his house saying that, “those who are free from worries will live long lives.”

People surrounding him said with humor that the balding Wangduo more and more resembles Shakespeare. This Tibetan “Shakespeare” has joined the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles and Tibet Federation of Literary and Art Circles and playing his last role of his life that can be written into history.

When the interview was about to be finished, the journalist said, “All’s well that ends well” (Shakespeare’s comedy that is named “All are Delighted” in Chinese). He nodded his head and smiled to show his applause.