Kham Aid Foundation is collecting donations to help people in Kham who have lost their homes in the May 12 earthquake. To make a contribution, please visit our donation page.
Tentatively, we plan to work in Kongyu, Kangding County, and are also investigating the possibility of offering assistance to people in Danba County where damage was heavy.
We are updating this page as reports
come in. Please check back for the latest news.
8/15/08
Liu Dongqing, a student sponsored through Kham Aid Foundation who was studying in Chengdu, has written about the changes that she has undergone because of the earthquake. See her letter.
8/10/08
We have learned that Kangding's new airport, which has been under construction for the past three years and has not yet opened, was damaged in the earthquake. Repairs are under way and the opening is still planned for late 2008.
7/15/08
A friend who provides office space to Kham Aid in Chengdu writes: "The office is still here. It can be used without any problem, almost no damage - old buildings are better quality in Chengdu. The office was a mess, things all over the small room, it takes long time for us to get the stuff in order. We have moved back since June. At the very beginning we only worked for 3 - 4 hours each day and left the office before 13:00. From 12 July, we began to work as usual -- from 9:30am - 17:00pm, but sometime we still leave early. The afterquakes were too many, but we are gradually getting used to it. Now the things is: when an afterquake happens, we do not run out for safety; instead we run to the computer to spread the news. We even try to guess the degree of the afterquake, share with friends about how to measure the strength of the afterquake with our butt. Kind of crazy "Chengdu people" - I am one of those.
6/14/08
Some counties in Aba (Ngawa) Prefecture spared
Kham Aid's greenhouse contractor, Luo Zha, who hails from Hongyuan, reports that Hongyuan and Ma'erkang counties were spared serious earthquake damage. He himself was driving through Wenchuan at the moment the earthquake struck and sustained serious damage to his vehicle as well as injuring his leg. (However, the injury has not deterred him from returning to work and he is preparing to build five more greenhouses for Kham Aid at schools in Litang County).
6/4/08
Photos from a hard-hit mountain community near the epicenter
Kham Aid Foundation received the following photos & descriptions from a local photographer who goes by the name "Chengdu Xin-Yang." They were taken in a mountainous area of Beichuan County. Although Beichuan is not in Kham, some nearby Tibetan and Qiang villages in Aba Prefecture where the terrain is similar may have experienced landslides like these. (If you want to know more about the photos, please call the photographer at 139 8005 9098)
A local villager said this small stream
was deep, the pile of earth looks quite ordinary, and the plants are intact,
everything looks normal. But this pile of earth was not here before. The local
villager said that the mountain looked like it had been bombed and the earth was
thrown up and came down here. The mountain spurted out red magma like a geyser,
tens of meters high.
A young witness said that there were several houses still standing. People whom came from the houses ran directly to the river and fell into a newly opened crevasse. A moment later there was a roar and the crevasse closed.
Villagers who have lived all their lives
in this place cannot find where their houses once stood because the land is
unrecognizable.
Towers damaged in Danba
The Danba County government reports that in total more than 50 towers were damaged by the May 12 earthquake with varying degrees of giant cracks and partial collapse. The damaged towers are endangering 39 nearby households comprising 195 individuals. 17 towers in Zhong-Lu Township, 15 towers in Suopo Township, and 3 towers in Ba-e Township are partially collapsed with major damage to roofs, walls and interior components. Of these, thirty are considered "very dangerous."
A photograph of one tower at Suopo prior to
the earthquake can be seen at
picasaweb.google.com/.../
5/29/08
Nyitso Monastery condition
A New York Times article reported that Nyitso Monastery was "jolted off its foundations" but this is NOT true. According to local officials, the temple buildings at Nyitso suffered from cracks but have remained on their foundations.
5/21/08
Casualties in Ganzi Prefecture
According a Ganzi Prefecture
official report, 11 people died and 23 people were injured in
this earthquake disaster.
Generally, the official report counts the number of rooms
damaged or collapsed instead of the number of houses. In
the four affected counties of Kangding, Danba, Luding, and
Jiulong, a total of 68,167 rooms are reported damaged or
collapsed to varying degrees
We have received information from the director of the Religious Affairs Bureau of Daofu County (Tib: Dawu or Tawu) that both Nyitso Monastery (Ch: Lingque) and Garthar Monastery (Ch: Huiyuan) were affected by this earthquake. At Nyitso, new earthquake-caused cracks have compounded existing instability and made the old temples more dangerous than they already were. The degree of danger to the structures has not yet been assessed by Kham Aid experts, but local authorities are said to be anxious about large temples at both monasteries.
Garthar Monastery is located in the crossroads town of Bamei which is west of the epicenter and close to the Danba County border. Nyitso Monastery is located father away in the Daofu county town, in an area that saw little or no effect from the earthquake, however is particularly vulnerable due its age and existing structural problems that have been documented by Kham Aid architectural conservators.
Nyitso Monastery as it
appeared in October, 2007. The temples shown are thought to be
about 350 years old.
5/20/08
Status of Kham Aid architectural project sites
We reached the people in Wayao village and learned that the three ancient houses, including Pema Penlo's located in the lower part of the village, are all fine.
According to Kangding county government report, Sengge Monastery is not affected by the earthquake.
5/18/08
Reports from Danba, Chengdu, and Kangding
We are receiving conflicting reports about the extent of the damage in Danba County. Some reports say that no towers have collapsed yet others say that some towers have been damaged - both statements may well be true. A friend at the Unicorn Foundation writes that one of the two roads linking Danba to Chengdu has been reopened, and that, at Si Guniang Shan (4 Sisters Mountain), quite a few of the houses suffered earthquake damage.
Angela Lankford, who has been in Kangding since the earthquake, writes, "We were not hard hit here. Just extremely frightened. And the aftershocks are keeping the fright current!"
A Kham Aid Foundation supporter who is resident in Chengdu says that the situation in the city has returned to something resembling normalcy, however many buildings have been declared unsafe and the people have moved out. One of these is the Zhufeng Hotel in downtown Chengdu where Kham Aid has its office.
One reason that news from earthquake-affected Tibetan areas has been scant is that, since the unrest in March, there have been no tourists at all in these regions.
5/17/08
Death toll in Tibetan regions of Sichuan
At 16:00 local time, the official death toll is:
Ganzi prefecture: 9
5/16/08
Reports on damage to some towers
In Kangding (Dartsendo) county, Shade Township, the ancient Laha tower has been damaged a little with some cracks, but no collapse. There is no report about Jiagewei tower. The three monasteries in Kangding (Dartsendo) town, Anque, Jingang and Nanwu, also have some cracks.
There is a tower (similar to Danba towers) in Kongyu, a seriously-hit township in Kangding County. On this tower, some of the top has collapsed, there are big cracks and the structure is in a precarious state.
At Tagong monastery there is no serious damage; just some loosened roof tiles. We have no report about Sengge Monastery in Tagong township. [Seng-ge Monastery is a concern because the main temple and many monk residences lie on a steep slope beneath a field of large boulders].
5/15/08
According to the Danba county government, two towers in Ba-e Township was very seriously damaged. The upper parts of the two towers collapsed. As for the other towers, they haven't yet received any info about their status, but the relevant township governments have sent people to check their condition. About damage to local houses, the government hasn't yet received full information (and will probably be very careful in what information they do release). According to some of Kham Aid¡¯s Danba friends, some family houses have collapsed and others are damaged to different degrees.
5/14/2008
Kham Aid's field office unaffected by earthquake
Our field office reports that damage in Kangding was light. The power is on at least some of the time and the internet is functional. So, our office is working. We are ready and able to help, and will utilize our extensive network of friends and partners across the region to ensure that aid money is used effectively.
As of 9am on May 14, 2008, the official death toll in Ganzi Prefecture is 8. The death toll in Aba Prefecture is 161, including Wenchuan County. These numbers are certain to increase as rescue efforts penetrate into remote areas.
We did receive reports that, in Guza township in Kangding County at least two people lost their lives in earthquake-caused rockslides.
At this time we do not have information as to the condition of historic and cultural sites in the region but it is likely that a great many traditional stone houses, towers, and temples have been severely damaged. More information will be posted here as it becomes available.
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