Purbu, a native of Heping Village of Nyima County, southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, traveled to Lhasa, the regional capital, during the National Day holiday season to buy a solar energy converter as a dowry for his younger sister.

"It's fashionable, pollution-free, and I'm sure my sister will love it," said Purbu, who spent over 2,000 yuan (US$241) on the gift. Purbu's home, located in northern, pastoral Tibet, is some 500 km away from Lhasa and it takes a full day to travel there on the bumpy plateau highways.

It is true that in rural and pastoral Tibet, solar energy converters have replaced conventional pollution-prone fuel and have become fashionable consumer commodities.

For a long time, Tibetans, who consider themselves "sons and daughters of the sun," had relied on straw, firewood, cattle dung for fuel, and ghee, a kind of clarified and semifluid butter, for lighting, and shunned using solar energy despite the fact that Tibet, also known as "roof of the world," abounds in sunlight, which lasts for 3,400 hours a year here.

Some of the sun-worshiping Tibetans were reluctant, until recently, to use state-subsidized solar ovens for cooking. Five years ago, Zhoima, an old Tibetan woman from Dongjiao Village of Gyangze County, southern Tibet, insisted her daughter return the solar oven to the shop she had bought for the mother as the mother feared the sun god might "get tired out."

A region-wide "sunlight scheme" was launched in Tibet in 1990 and another "electricity to township program" was also kicked off in 2002 in a bid to make a good use of solar energy resources and protect local environment in the plateau region.

Wang Haijiang, deputy head of Tibet Solar Energy Research and Demonstration Center, said that under the "sunlight scheme," Tibetans would get a subsidy of 50 yuan (US$6) for purchasing a solar energy oven, which costs 300 yuan (US$36).

Each solar energy oven can help save about 750 kg of straw and firewood a year, said Wang.

Over the past 14 years, in addition to popularizing knowledge on the scientific development of solar energy resources, workers with Wang's center have helped Tibetan farmers and herdsmen install 110,000 solar energy ovens at their homes.

In the meantime, since 2002, the state has also invested more than 800 million yuan (US$96 million) in constructing 300 solar energy power generating stations across Tibet, with the aggregate installed capacity amounting to 8,000 kw.

The efforts have paid off.

Dainzin Wangja, head of the Dongjiao Village Committee, GyangzeCounty, said thanks to popularization of scientific knowledge, all 247 households in the village have built solar energy ovens and solar energy greenhouses.

Zhoima, the old Tibetan woman from the same village, now has one solar oven fixed at her home for cooking. "Solar energy resources will be wasted in vain if we don't use them," said Zhoima. "The most important thing is that solar energy is free of charge, pollution-free, and we can use it to grow vegetables in greenhouses and cook and heat."

Targyai, a 65-year-old Tibetan herdsman from Coqen County, said from his nomadic tent that lamps powered by solar energy saved him 50 kg of ghee from burning for lighting or 1,200 yuan (US$145) a year.

When night falls, Cewang Ringqen, another old Tibetan farmer from Ngari Prefecture, does woolen knitting under a solar energy lamp, with three grandchildren doing their homework and the rest of the family watching TV programs.

"Compared to cattle dung and ghee, solar energy is much cleaner," said Cewang.

Development and utilization of solar energy resources have not only changed Tibetan farmers' and herdsmen' ways of life and production, but also changed their environment for subsistence.

Lhaba Cering, an official from Ngari Prefecture, said every household needed to cut seven tons of red willow branches for fuel before solar-heated houses were built.

"Utilization of solar energy has effectively protected vegetation on pasture," said Lhaba.

Moreover, with the electricity converted by solar energy, more than 500,000 Tibetan farmers and herdsmen have bid farewell to nights without light and cold winters with no heating facilities, said Wang Haijiang.

In addition to illumination, cooking and heating, solar energy is also widely used in fields such as telecoms, radio and TV services. The energy saved from the solar energy development and utilization each year is equivalent to 130,000 tons of standard coal, and the economic returns thus formed is estimated at 50 million yuan (US$603,864) a year.

(Xinhua News Agency October 21, 2004)