Min tibetanska barndom i Zorgay - Life and Culture on the Tibetan ...

an appointment the day before. We liked to go to rubbish heaps
in nearby villages <strong>and</strong> gather broken bottles, bowls, rusty
flashlights, ladles, <strong>and</strong> so on. We took turns carrying these
treasures in a tattered bag to the forest where we gathered sticks
<strong>and</strong> branches, built playhouses, <strong>and</strong> then divided into groups
with an equal number of boys <strong>and</strong> girls. The boys <strong>and</strong> girls in a
group were a family. We chose a leader <strong>and</strong> a wife for him in
each family, <strong>and</strong> the others were their sons <strong>and</strong> daughters. Then
the leaders or 'fathers' of each family h<strong>and</strong>ed out the things we
had gathered to equip our homes. In our childish hearts, they
were real homes.
Marriage is important in a family <strong>and</strong> our pretend
families were no exception. The fathers went to another family
to ask the father to betroth his daughter to the other's son. We
knew there should be a wedding party, but we did not know
how to sing the wedding songs. We just brought a girl from one
family to another <strong>and</strong> said that they were married. When one
family asked for a girl to marry their son, they brought the girl's
family a bottle filled with dust to signify a bottle of liquor <strong>and</strong>
offered tree bark for bread.
As real family members would do, the fathers <strong>and</strong>
mothers stayed at home, <strong>and</strong> the sons <strong>and</strong> sons-in-law went to
find food. I was a son <strong>and</strong> went in search of food with my wife.
We picked <strong>and</strong> ate strawberries on the nearby grassl<strong>and</strong> <strong>and</strong>
also put some in our pockets <strong>and</strong> our hats. This made our
clothes difficult to wash, <strong>and</strong> our real mothers always scolded
us, <strong>and</strong> then when we had the chance, we returned to the forest
to look for mushrooms. We knew of only two kinds that were
edible. We also chewed tree sap like chewing gum. Some sap
was like glue <strong>and</strong> stuck to our teeth <strong>and</strong> then we tried to spit it
out. If that did not work, we chewed on our sleeves where it
stuck, making our sleeves dirty <strong>and</strong> hard.
We got to our homes with the strawberries <strong>and</strong>
mushrooms <strong>and</strong> our parents greeted us warmly <strong>and</strong> gently. We,
the couples, took the strawberries from our jacket <strong>and</strong> trouser
pockets. The strawberries were as mashed as if a giant animal
had masticated them. We put them into bowls <strong>and</strong> gave them to
our parents. While they ate, they praised, "Our good son <strong>and</strong>
daughter-in-law, you two are the kindest <strong>and</strong> most generous
people. We pray Buddha will always bless you."
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