Border guard crosses the language barrier

A hectic scene unfolds at the Burang crossing on the China-Nepal border in the Tibet autonomous region every morning.

Traders in puffer jackets wait anxiously as a fully loaded truck approaches from the Chinese side. Taking a cue from the engine's fading roar, workers gathered on the dirt track spring to their feet to get ready to unload the vehicle. Police officers from China and Nepal circle the truck to inspect it.

At first glance, it is not easy to single out from the crowd Chinese officer Thubten Tsewang, who is 1.6 meters tall. But he soon becomes noticeable as the only one who is able to navigate a cacophony of conversations, thanks to his trilingual talents.

Thubten Tsewang, 37, has been working at the Burang Entry-Exit Border Inspection Station in Tibet's Ngari prefecture for 17 years. Tibetan is his mother tongue. He also speaks fluent Mandarin with a Tibetan lilt, and is able to converse with Nepalese officers and workers in their native language.

But he is no linguistic prodigy, nor did he learn multiple languages at a young age. Born into a herding family in Maldrogungkar county, an impoverished area about 70 kilometers east of Tibet's capital Lhasa, Thubten Tsewang finished primary school and, due to financial difficulties, never attended middle school.

"For several years, I picked up some temporary jobs in different areas to earn a livelihood," he said.

"I worked for 12 hours a day on average for a daily wage of 16 yuan when I had one job in Nyingchi city."

In 2002, he joined the border inspection team at Burang, an opportunity he jumped at.

"For me, it was either serving in Ngari as a border patrolman or heading back to my hometown and being a herdsman," he said.

Talk the talk

Thubten Tsewang soon realized that proficiency in Mandarin was a crucial skill in the workplace. "I was clueless when my colleagues talked in Mandarin and I was unable to utter a complete sentence in Mandarin, which made me feel dumb and frustrated," he said.

Motivated by the belief that he could be the master of his own fate, Thubten Tsewang devoted all his efforts to learning Mandarin.

There were brief moments when self-doubt would creep in. "Tibetan and Mandarin are very different in grammar, pronunciation and syntax. Sometimes, I had to chase after my colleague who is fluent in Mandarin to get to the bottom of a question," he said. "It was a painstaking process, but giving up was not an option."

After three years of intensive study, Thubten Tsewang mastered Mandarin.

However, he was far away from being satisfied with his language skills.

Hilsa, the nearest Nepalese village to Burang, is less than 30 minutes' walk away and is home to about 160 households. The villagers, who sell handicrafts such as bowls and bracelets in the local market, get their groceries and construction materials from China.

Friend to many

In the early 2000s, one of the duties of border officers like Thubten Tsewang was to check the identification documents of Nepalese residents who crossed the border for shopping. "To be fluent in Mandarin and Tibetan was not sufficient in these circumstances," he said.

During a patrol in July 2008, Thubten Tsewang and another officer, Chen Hui, encountered a Nepalese man who had suffered a heart attack.

Chen, who could speak Nepali, helped get the man to the nearest hospital for treatment.

The incident prompted Thubten Tsewang to accelerate his study of Nepali. A stack of notebooks with Nepali words and sentences gradually piled up by his bedside.

"I had developed the habit of reviewing my notes for about half an hour before going to sleep, no matter how tired I was at the end of the day," Thubten Tsewang said.

His perseverance earned him a place in a language program at Tibet University.

Karma Tamang, a Nepalese businessman who is building a hostel in Hilsa village, said he has known Thubten Tsewang for more than a decade. "He is a very helpful and calm man, and fluent in Nepali," he said. "We are practically neighbors. To be able to talk with him helps us address misunderstandings and difficulties when we trade with people, and we have built a friendship over the years."

Thubten Tsewang is also tasked with translating meetings between Chinese border authorities and their Nepalese counterparts, aimed at deepening collaboration.

Despite his achievements, Thubten Tsewang is a humble man.

"I remember the difficult times when I had to eat barley flour every day to save money," he said. "I am more than grateful to be a police officer at the border."