INTRODUCTION: Sonan Jetsun (Bsod nams rgyal mtshan) filmed this material 12-22 January 2008 in Len yi (Lianyi) Village, Sgong po (Gongbo) Township, Sde rong (Derong) County, Dkar mdzes (Ganzi) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Si khron (Sichuan) Province, PR China. The film features the Tibetan New Year, Bkra shis Temple, and ordinary people's lives in Len yi Village. Sonan Jetsun also edited the material and plans to give it to Len yi villagers on DVD/ VCD.

LOCATION: Lianyi Village is 200 kilometers southwest of Sde rong County Town, 550 kilometers from Dar rtse mdo (Kangding) City (the capital of Dkar mdzes Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture). The village has eighty households (560 Tibetans). Each family has an average of seven members, representing three generations. Most villagers were born after 1953. Villagers are agro-pastoralists, followers of the Dge lugs pa (Yellow Sect) of Tibetan Buddhism, and speak a distinctive Tibetan dialect.

BKRASHIS TEMPLE: Bkrashis Temple is situated in Len yi Village, was established in the eighteenth century, and destroyed during the Cultural Revolution. Lama Byams pa tshul khrims suggested rebuilding the temple due to disease and bad harvests in the local area. Consequently, from 2006-2008, local people raised money and rebuilt the temple.

SKAL BZANG SHES RAB (oral interview): Skal bzang shes rab was born in 1930. When he was seven, his father was expelled by the local people due to his status as an 'outsider' and he never saw his father again. Intense poverty forced his mother to send him to a home near the village to work as a servant for the family about eleven years (from the ages of thirteen to twenty-four). At the age of twenty-five, he joined the local militia.