Besides, the school pays a lot of attention to making its education unique and outstanding in one or two aspects.

Yinmingxue, known as hetuvidyā in Sanskrit, is a way of explaining logic with Buddhism that is practiced in Tibetan Buddhist monasteries. It was introduced into the school's curriculum in 2007. Two sides debate aspects from Buddhist scriptures that they claim disagree with each other.

According to the school, by adopting this method, the school combines Tibetan culture with modern educational approaches to develop students' logic and thinking abilities. Every week, the school has a theory class and also a practice class for yinmingxue. Students are encouraged to argue with their classmates on problems they come across in various disciplines. Apart from regular classes, there are also relevant contests and also extracurricular activity groups.

Moreover, the school set up a baseball team in 2007. The program bridges team members with their peers in other parts of the country, as they were sent to schools in east China's Jiangsu Province during summer and winter vacations for exchanges. Proficient students also have opportunities to participate in summer training camps and compete against athletes from across the country.

Last year, Xianba Cairang from the school won the title of Fine Player at the Pony Baseball World Series Asia-Pacific Zone Tournament, which was held in Seoul, South Korea, between July 29 and August 2, 2013.

Vocational training

The state-run Hainan Prefecture Vocational and Technical School has a student base that is 87 percent Tibetan, and 97 percent of its Tibetan students come from rural and pastoral areas. Due to economic difficulties, some of those students had received little education before attending the school.

Eleven disciplines, such as automobile maintenance, Tibetan medicine, accounting, and traditional handicrafts like tangka painting and Tibetan embroidery, are offered at the school. The students don't need to worry about daily life during their three years' study, thanks to the government's provision of living allowances for them.

Every summer, teachers from the school visit the surrounding rural and pastoral areas to tell local people about the courses and programs available at the school. More importantly, given that many families in these areas are not well-off financially, the school emphasizes the government policy that allows free accommodation and food to students. Gradually, when more and more students graduate from the school, they can tell people in their hometowns about what they have learned and received at the school. In recent years, the school's enrollment has kept growing.

Yang Ben is a 17-year-old student from a local pastoral area. His family herds sheep and cattle. Life is not difficult for them, but Yang said that he did not want to spend his whole life raising domestic animals. Knowing that the vocational school offered him opportunities, he decided to come here to study automobile maintenance. "This was my own choice, as this major is what I'm really interested in," Yang said, adding that after studying at the school he can start a new life different from that of his parents and grandparents.

Tsering Dolma, 28, has been teaching Tibetan embroidery at the school for six years since she graduated there. A horse embroidery she is working on is a commission order from an American client, which will be sold for 10,000 yuan ($1,653).

A few of the students in the embroidery class are orphans, while some come from single-parent families. Most of them stay at home doing embroidery after graduation, and companies order works from them and then sell them around Qinghai and even across the country. Their artwork will usually fetch a good price, and they will no longer have to worry about how to support themselves or their families.

Email us at: panxiaoqiao@bjreview.com