多杰卓玛谈到了她的回忆录 牦牛的女孩 他最近在太阳城网赌平台的一次新书演讲中说道.
七岁时, 金刚玛 was living in one of the most remote places in the world, protecting her family’s goats and sheep from wolves and snow leopards. 10岁时, she was facing a life-threatening condition and would encounter an American woman, 与太阳城网赌平台有联系, 谁会改变她的人生轨迹.
在她的新回忆录中， 牦牛的女孩: Growing Up in the Remote Dolpo Region of Nepal (有知觉的出版物, 2018), Dolma描述了她在Dolpo的童年, an isolated region of Nepal in the Himalayas near the border with Tibet. It is an area that has become more familiar to Westerners since the publication of Peter Matthiessen’s award-winning book 雪豹 以及奥斯卡提名影片《太阳城网赌平台》.” In her village there was no electricity, no running water, no roads, no medicine and no schools. What her home did have was family, tradition, nature, and beauty.
Dolma is the oldest of 11 children born to Dolma Tsering and Karma Dhandul. 5岁时, Dolma’s days were filled with chores either in the home or, 最好是, high in the mountains where she would watch over the family’s animals while they grazed.
金刚玛 (right) and her adoptive mother Jennifer Cleary, daughter of 太阳城网赌平台 alumni Margaret McCluskey Cleary '59, 61届MS和已故的52届Gerald Cleary. (图片来源:Kathleen L. Sullivan)
In a recent author talk at 太阳城网赌平台, Dolma recalled happy times from her childhood. “河流是我的朋友，也是我的游乐场. I sang songs along to the soothing sounds of the water, and with the gifts the river brought down—sticks and stones—I built little rock houses.”
但也有很多困难. The brutally cold winters after a poor harvest season were especially difficult. When Dolma was six, her best friend died after eating unripe berries. Dolma的五个弟弟妹妹也去世了. Dolma read a heartbreaking passage from her memoir about participating in her little sister’s cremation ceremony.
她10岁的时候, her family decided to travel to Kathmandu to seek possible medical help for Dolma, who had a curvature of her spine that was causing extreme back pain and affecting her breathing. The journey, on foot, took the family one month to complete. 卓玛再也见不到她的村庄了.
As the family approached the city, Dolma writes that she felt she had traveled to another planet. 那是1995年, and it was the first time she tasted a fresh orange, saw an airplane (or any vehicle) or used an electric lamp.
在加德满都, Dolma and her family received care from ROKPA International, a humanitarian organization that operated a soup kitchen, 医疗诊所, 还有儿童之家. 在那里她遇到了美国志愿者Jennifer Cleary. 她是两位BC大学毕业生的女儿, 克利里在20世纪80年代就读于太阳城网赌平台, 为老鹰队踢足球.
Cleary soon learned from doctors that Dolma had a very severe case of scoliosis. Left untreated, the scoliosis would worsen and crush her organs. Dolma只剩下不到两年的生命了. Cleary also learned that due to the complexity of the case, there was no possibility of Dolma getting treatment in Nepal.
“I had no idea what would unfold but I felt deeply moved to help her,” recalled Cleary. “It was just one of those magical moments in life where one feels an instantaneous connection to a person.”
克利里回到了美国.S. with Dolma’s x-rays, hoping for better news from surgeons in the States. She found a medical team willing and able to do the necessary surgery. Cleary traveled back to Kathmandu to bring Dolma to the U.S., where the child underwent four very grueling surgeries over the next two years.
Cleary的母亲Margaret McCluskey, Cleary, 59年, MS ’61, 一个护士, stayed with Dolma as she recuperated from her surgeries. “Dorje told me stories about her name, her family, and her life dreams. She said she always knew she had a life somewhere other than the mountains. She was remarkably intuitive and wise,” said Margaret Cleary, who attended Dolma’s reading at BC.
Dolma最终被Jennifer Cleary收养. She would go on to graduate college and become an early childhood teacher. 她也是一位艺术家.
It wasn’t surprising to Margaret Cleary that her daughter did so much to help give Dolma a new chance at life. Jennifer was always helping others even as a young child, 玛格丽特·克利里说, who recalled backyard fairs Jennifer organized to help those with leukemia. “My late husband [Gerald Cleary '52] and I attempted to instill in our children the virtues that attracted us to each other.”
While many outsiders might view Dolpo in terms of what it lacks, Dolma sees the region differently. “尽管杜普洛的生活很艰苦, I’m really grateful that I had the experience of being in nature. It’s so magical to be surrounded by vast mountains, rivers, and valleys in complete silence. 完全的沉默是很难得到的. Being in nature taught me to have patience and appreciate little things in life.”
Margaret Cleary got the opportunity to travel to Kathmandu with Dolma in 2000 for a family reunion. “这是一种爱的混合, 欢笑与泪水, with her father rubbing Dorje’s back in wonderment,玛格丽特·克利里回忆道.
Dolma非常感激她的父母. “One of the greatest gifts my parents gave me was letting me go,” she writes in her memoir. “I am ever so grateful for their decision to get help for me by making the long journey to Kathmandu and praying for me. 我每天都能感受到父母的祝福.”
卓玛会捐出部分收益 牦牛的女孩 to the medical and educational needs of the people from the Upper Dolpo region.
——凯瑟琳·沙利文|《大学传播