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Sejia, director of the Derge Printing House, dies of sudden illness

[First report:  May 8, 2000]

Dear Friends of the Kham Aid Foundation, 

Today I learned that the director of the Derge Printing House, Sejia, passed away a few days ago. The cause was sudden illness; I do not have any more detail than that. [See later reports for more details; they are attached below]. 

The news was all the more shocking since I saw Sejia (full name Sonam Gyantsen) here in Kangding only one week ago. Our parting words were "See you in Derge." He was no more than thirty years old, in excellent health so far as I knew, and certainly was in robust spirits when I saw him. His death occurred during the last few days. 

Let me tell you what I know of him. Sejia was born in Derge, in a village on the slopes of sacred Nyengtok Peak. His father died young, leaving Sejia's mother to raise the three children alone. This she did with great dedication and sacrifice, while holding down a job as a school teacher. 

Sejia told me once how he used to ride a pony to school every day. The older daughter is married with children, and the other son is a monk, if I recall correctly. Sejia therefore inherited the responsibility for carrying on the family line. He did well in school, eventually receiving a degree from a university in Qinghai. After spending a few more years away from home, he returned to Derge. 

Two years ago he was appointed director of the Printing House, a venerable institution whose collection of wood blocks comprises some 70 per cent of traditional Tibetan literary culture. There was some resentment at so young a man being appointed to this important post, but he soon proved to be an excellent director and a breath of fresh air in what had long been a stale, staid, tradition-bound institution. Although he inherited a group of subordinates who were not nearly so forward-looking as he, he vigorously set about revitalizing the place. Among his many innovations, he opened shops in Chengdu and later Lhasa to make DPH books more accessible to customers. He also brought back traditional paper-making, rescuing it from oblivion as the last person in Derge who knows the craft is quite old. 

When I first met Sejia, I was with a group of American travelers. We were doing a horse-trek and cultural tour of Derge. I recall being quite impressed with the young man who showed us around the Printing House, as he poured out, proudly and in seemingly inexhaustible detail, the history and significance of this great Tibetan cultural treasure. We later became friends, and I helped him by taking some photos, and composing some English text for a new brochure they produced following the opening of Derge. 

Last year he married a local school teacher, who gave birth a few months ago to a baby boy. 

One of his last requests to me was to bring a team of conservators to rescue the ancient murals on the Derge Printing House walls. Although I have no expert conservators with me on this trip, I made plans to lead two of our conservation apprentices on a quick mission to Derge. That mission is still on, and we leave Kangding tomorrow. My plan is that we will map out in detail the condition of the murals where they are peeling from the wall, where they are stable, where they are dirty, and where they have already been lost. Fortunately, I recently heard from an organization interested in sponsoring this project. My hope is that we can undertake an autumn mission that will do emergency stabilization of the most critical sections. 

Personally, I can't help but wonder what role Derge's primitive medical facilities might have played in Sejia's death. It underlines the urgent need for economic development and modernization in these remote towns and grasslands. It's one thing to read statistics on short life expectancy; it's quite another when the short life happens to someone you know, someone as smart and vital as Sejia was. It makes me even more determined to continue, with all possible speed, the work I began when I founded Kham Aid Foundation. 

Sadly, 
Pamela Logan 

[Second report: May 17, 2000]

Dear Friends, 

Thanks to everyone who replied to my note about the recent tragic death of Sejia, director of the Derge Printing House. I just came back from Derge where I was able to learn some details. Not only that, but I visited Sejia's family. They were still in deep mourning, staying in rooms at Goenchen Monastery. Although I had not met any of them before, they received me very kindly. 

Here is the sequence of events. I saw Sejia in Kangding on the evening of May 1. He left for Derge on May 2, arriving on May 3. By May 4 we was ill with abdominal pain, which I imagine must have been quite severe. Although there is a Tibetan medicine clinic in town, they took him to the county hospital where Western medicine is practiced. The doctor there diagnosed a blocked intestine, which needed immediate surgery. During the operation, the doctor realized that he was mistaken in his diagnosis. Speculation around town is that Sejia had pancreatitis instead [See the third report, attached below, for more on this]. Whatever he had, he died in the early hours of May 5, just four days after I saw him. 

The funeral was on May 9. Because of Sejia's importance to the town, he was buried in the town's small graveyard rather than cremated or given a sky burial. Seven hundred townspeople turned out, as well as 200 monks from Goenchen Monastery, and four county chiefs. The line of mourners was so long that it stretched all the way from the town to the funeral grounds, a thirty minute hike away. The monks made a line on the hill above the grave, and chanted as his remains were interred. 

I visited the site two days later. It is above and up-valley of the town on the left side, with terraced fields below it and a web of prayer flags fluttering above. From the earthen mound, you can see the Printing House, Nyengtok Peak, and also Sejia's home village far in the distance. With permission of the family, I lay some flowers at his grave. 

It turns out that Sejia's brother, Yeshi Lhodrup, is an important monk at Goenchen. He has earned the title of Khenpo and is considered second-most learned scholar in the monastery. Although he can't be more than about 28 years old, he struck me as a deeply accomplished and spiritual person--much more so than 99% of monks I've encountered in Tibet. He asked for help in making contact with Sakyapas abroad. 

I also saw Sejia's little son, who is eight months old, and held him in my arms. Amid so much acute sorrow, he was oddly calm, and looked at me with huge, luminous, unblinking eyes.

 Since writing the first dispatch about Sejia, I have recalled many of the times we shared. After we met in Derge in September 1998, Sejia rode back to Chengdu with me and my group in our minibus. During the four-day trip, he kept our spirits up with his beautiful singing. After the group went home, we were both in Chengdu for about two weeks. He was quite a joker, I discovered. He would frequently phone me and, using his few words of English, try to pretend to be someone else. 

Word is around town that a new DPH director will probably not be appointed until the end of the year. In the meantime, day-to-day operations are in the hands of Sejia's two deputies, Shiongka and Demey. The Derge Culture and Education Bureau will also exercise some authority over Printing House affairs. 

Some of the notes I received from you will be translated and sent to Sejia's family, so they can know how many friends he had around the world. 

Best wishes, 
Pamela Logan 

[Third report, a letter from Mike Tan]

From Mike Tan <miketan696@yahoo.com> 
Subject Re sad news 
To Pamela Logan 

 Hi Dear friend, 

It was so unacceptable! 

What a SAD News! 

I could not believe it! 

Why did this happen to Seija! 

Seija and I, met Pamela just on April the 27th, in the evening, and we called her in the afternoon. Seija went to visit me in my office in Jinhe Hotel on April 28 in the morning, and I showed him the new pictures which I had framed, I selected four of them, beautiful Tangka pictures, Seija like it too! And he seemed very happy that I use Tangka as decoration to office. He showed me the sample, the picture book of Dege Parkang, and promised he will send one to you and one to me as he wanted more tourist to visit his hometown and the Parkang he loved. He said he can't send the only one to me that time, for he was going to show it to the government leader in Kangding, and ask for help.

 He tld me that with the fund from the Bridge foundation, he could start the paper making, and then print the Sutras on traditionary Tibetan Paper, and make money for the Parkang, and he could collect more wood blocks for the Barkang. He asked me to write down his BP number again, so I would not forget, though I had the number already. I tld him to go to the same BP company I use, so our BP operator is the same, 96998, and we can get message all province round, even in Ganzi, he tld me with this BP, all friends will be able to get in touch with him, and now, where are you, Seija,... I called you these days and hope you call me back, all the friends are looking for you, I even called to the Tibetan Buddism research center to look for you. I called them today, they all thought you are in Dege, if you come to Chengdu, you will call them, surely I know, if you are in Chengdu you call me too, and you introduce me to those Tibetan friends, that's why I know them. I can't tell them the sad news myself. 

I still remember every time you showed the foreign tourist around in the Parkang, I remembered the how you love the Parkang! So this Summer when I lead tourist to the Parkang, I can't see you, while the Parkang is the same, but you, my friend, you were not there anymore! How I wish I could see you sing a Tibetan song again! May all the Budda protect you in the heaven and I keep you informed all the things happen in the Parkang and Dege and Chengdu. I know how you love the Parkang and how proud you felt on it, and I know you are still taking care of the Parkang, your spirit is still in the Parkang, even you are in heaven now. I miss you, Seija... All your friends miss you... 

Sadly, Michael   
PS. I went to the Telecom in downtown this afternoon, where I only go to get in touch with Seija, where I called him, and sent him telegraphs. I made long distance call by operator to Seija's home. I just said, hi, I'm Michael, I want to talk to Seija, for I still hope the Sad News was a mistake or just a rumor. " Seija had gone, three days ago, I am his Uncle, we came back together from Kangding one week ago." The cholecystitis and ileus took his life. The locle government leader went to see him during his last 3 days in local hospital, his uncle said, but the medical condition was poor there. The two illness would not take people's life in cities, I am in Chengdu, I know, but Seija.... The relatives will bury him tomorrow, 530 Am, I can't go to his funeral, but will see him every time I lead tourist to the Dege Printing House. We all miss you......

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