The Whore of Chamdo

The woman who got AIDS: her name was ____________. She was 29, from a farm. Her parents were divorced and she lived with her father, but her younger sister lived with her mother, who was sick with a lung disease and other problems. Someone needed to take care of her. The woman had to leave school at age fifteen because it was hard to watch them struggling. They needed her help, so she left school to go home and help take care of her mother. When she was 18 she went to ___________ to work at a hotel. She made little money, half of it she sent home to her mother and half of it she kept for her food and clothes. At 20, she started working for a wealthy family as a nanny. The husband raped her many times, but she couldn’t leave. She had signed papers promising to stay for one year, she was afraid of what would happen if she broke the rules. After the year passed, she left to work at a business where people could take a shower, the pay there was better, allowing her to send more money home. Time passed, and the business failed when she was 24 in 2008.

Someone she knew from the hotel recommended she go to Chamdo. Before she got to Chamdo, she never expected to end up becoming a prostitute. At first, she found prostitution very difficult. Out of the need for money, she had to sell her own body. Other prostitutes told her she could make more than 100,000 Chinese Yuan in only two or three years, a lot of money for them. It was terrible, but she made the money she needed. She got used to it and signed a paper to work at a brothel for two years. In 2010, when she was 26, her body began to feel weak, she didn’t have any energy. It seemed like there was some sickness, so she went to see a doctor. The doctor told her he couldn’t fix the disease, she had AIDS. As soon as she heard that news she deeply missed her family and started to worry about her mother and sister. She didn’t know what they would do if she died. She went home to be with them.

A friend from the brothel helped pay for her medicine, which she was very thankful for. The medicine made her feel much better, with the medicine she felt well enough to return to work as usual. It was the season for picking the caterpillar fungus. The end of the month for picking fungus was the best time for prostitutes to make money. Men coming back from the mountains liked to stop by and see prostitutes before going home. At that time, a prostitute could see sixteen men in one night. Men from the villages liked to use their big chance to see prostitutes, they loved to switch between women, some of them visited five or six prostitutes in the same night. If she asked them to use a condom, they had no idea what she was talking about. Most of them were happy to pay more money if they didn’t have to use one.

Monks and well-known lamas came too. When lamas came, they usually stayed at the hotel next to the brothel. The hotel would send someone bring the prostitutes into the hotel for them. They paid 20 Chinese Yuan to the person who brought the prostitutes. Some of the lamas only masturbated while fondling their breasts. Most of the lamas had sex the same as any other man. The prostitutes liked it when lamas came, the lamas paid more money and didn’t make trouble. She had four lamas among her regular customers. One of the lamas was very important. Sometimes government officials called for the prostitutes too.

She made 90,000 Chinese Yuan, but she often cried. “Now look at me,” she’d say “I have money, but now look at me.” She couldn’t keep going. There is a lot of danger in Tibet for young people. People think they can do anything, but this is a real story.