Over the past 11 years, she has used a toothbrush to clean cemetery sculptures, monuments

Every year during the run-up to Qingming Festival, a stooped, gray-haired woman can be found on a ladder cleaning monuments in the martyrs' cemetery at Yichang, Hubei province, with a toothbrush.

This has been Tsering Drolma's routine over the past 11 years. It usually takes about a month to clean all the sculptures.

Qingming Festival, or Tomb Sweeping Day, which falls on April 4 or April 5, is the traditional Chinese occasion when people visit their ancestors' graves and pay their respects.

Tsering Drolma, a 76-year-old Tibetan, said she felt compelled to carry out the voluntary cleanup after seeing a number of foreign tourists shake their heads as they looked at one of the sculptures during a visit to the cemetery in 2004.

"A girl who knows English told me the foreigners complained that the sculpture was too dirty to take a photograph of. I felt ashamed, and decided that I wouldn't let the situation happen again," she said. "The martyrs sacrificed their lives for us, and we shouldn't forget them."

Tsering Drolma always remembers the debt of gratitude she owes to the People's Liberation Army. Born into a family of serfs, she started working for a feudal lord at the age of 7 but was mistreated.

She saw a glimmer of hope when the PLA entered the Tibetan city of Qamdo when she was 15. She managed to join the ordnance regiment and served for 12 years, during which she fought against bandits and repaired roads.

She was transferred to civilian work in Qamdo in 1966, and married a soldier from Yichang. She followed her husband and settled there in 1987, and now supports herself with a grocery store.

Tsering Drolma was especially grateful for the help she received from a platoon leader surnamed Zhang. He accepted her into the army and took care of her as if she were his sister, but died in a battle against bandits at the age of 23, leaving her heartbroken.

She was excited to find a sculpture on the monument in the cemetery that looks very much like the platoon leader.

Tsering Drolma gives a warm welcome to Tibetan students who study at the China Three Gorges University in Yichang. To ease their homesickness, she cooks and makes buttered tea, a traditional Tibetan drink, for them in her room in a bungalow.

The 33-square-meter room is her grocery store, kitchen and bedroom. A three-shelf bookcase is attached to the wall.

"The books and magazines are free to borrow," said Tsering Drolma, who cannot read herself but has a thirst for knowledge.

Jiang Yihua, a neighbor, is moved by her kindness.

"Sometimes we think it's silly for her to spend what she earned from her lifelong hard work on strangers and live in a damp bungalow. But she always replies that it's what she should do," Jiang said.

Many of the Tibetan students she helped are doing well back in their hometowns, and she loves to hear from her young friends about their promotions and marriages.

Champa Tenzin, one of the Tibetan graduates, visited Tsering Drolma in December.

As he said goodbye, the young doctor held Tsering Drolma's hand and said: "Thank you for making me delicious buttered tea that I missed so much while studying in Yichang and giving me a home here."

Contact the writers at liukun@chinadaily.com.cn