Yonden, a retired nomad schoolteacher, oversees the project and monitors its progress with Prof. Goldstein (right) in 2000.

Professor Melvyn C. Goldstein is Harkness Professor of Anthropology and Professor of International Health, School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University (CWRU), Director, Center for Research on Tibet, CWRU, and Chairman, Department of Anthropology, CWRU.

 

Revolving Sheep Bank, Tibet

Trial, Phase 1: 2000-2005

Economic self-sufficiency for Western Tibet’s poorest nomads

Professor Melvyn C Goldstein went to Phala in Western Tibet in 2000. After meetings with Chinese officials and Tibetan village leaders, he set up the trial of Revolving Sheep Bank.

We had no idea how it would turn out, whether the concept would work, recipients would repay their loans or bureaucratic obstructions would prevail as they so often do. As this is written in February, 2008, not only has the Revolving Sheep Bank succeeded beyond everyone's expectations but also it has become the protoptype for other livestock projects in Tibet.

 

 

Administration, Monitoring and Evaluation
Trial Program
About the Principals
Ways YOU Can Donate
Year 2 Update
RSB FAQs Answered by Prof Goldstein
Tibetan PolicyAct
Latest Sheep Bank Report
Leatherwood Online* reports on the success of the Sheep Bank Project (August 2006)
Television and newspaper stories ABC-TV and ABC-Radio covered the story, as did Tasmanian Country newspaper.

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