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

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HARVEST
F
arming entails plowing, fertilizing, seeding, irrigating,
weeding, <strong>and</strong> harvesting. While most of these processes
remain much the same today as in the past, harvesting has
greatly changed since about the year 2000. At that time, our
fields were one to two kilometers from our village <strong>and</strong> villagers
took food with them to eat in the fields, rather than return home
for lunch. People from other villages helped each family
harvest, <strong>and</strong> we helped them when they harvested. Before
harvest day, women stayed home <strong>and</strong> baked bread, <strong>and</strong> prepared
tsampa, cheese, <strong>and</strong> butter. They also prepared ropes, saddles,
<strong>and</strong> scythes. Men <strong>and</strong> boys went to the summer pasture to get
the horses, mules, <strong>and</strong> steers, which were needed for harvesting
<strong>and</strong> for carrying the barley. It was difficult to catch them, since
they had been free all summer <strong>and</strong> were vigorous <strong>and</strong> energetic.
The horses were particularly hard to catch. The villagers roped
the animals one by one, working together to collect them <strong>and</strong> tie
lead ropes to the steers' nose rings.
Families went to the fields on harvest morning before
dawn. Some families reaped at night if the moon was bright
enough to see the field boundaries clearly, though there were
many cut fingers from the sharp scythes when harvesting at
night. There was a shared sense of urgency. The humorous
saying 'If straw gets in your eye during harvest, how relaxed
you are to ask someone to remove it' means people are so busy
that they have no time to care about this most essential part of
their body. Neither did they have time to chat with friends.
Children were also busy, loading barley on the animals to carry
it home.
Our village has larger fields than other villages <strong>and</strong> we
needed at least three days to harvest. We divided the fields into
lower, middle, <strong>and</strong> upper sections. The upper part was near the
village, making harvest easier. The villagers assembled <strong>and</strong>
discussed exactly when to begin harvest. Villagers were
forbidden to harvest beforeh<strong>and</strong>. If they did so, they were fined
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