Winter used to be the holiday season in the "sorcerers village" in China's Tibet Autonomous Region, when they stopped witchcraft activities and gathered to compete with their "supernatural powers".

However nowadays, the village looks much like its neighbors, where the people live practical and profitable lives, believing in science instead of wizardry.

Naisa Village, in Lhaze County, Xigaze Prefecture, has about 200 people. It was well-known a decade ago for the 63 sorcerers who lived there and were respected for their magical powers.

"We directed people when and how to farm. We called for rain, prevented hail, and diagnosed illnesses," recalled the village head, Gadan, who used to be an "insider".

"But all the sorcerers have given up the job. We are busy as before, but in laboring with our hands," Gadan said.

This former sorcerer told how this profession had lost people's trust and diminished in standing.

In the summer of 1991, a severe locust plague struck three villages, including Naisa. Pesticide teams were dispatched by the local government to kill the locusts. However, villagers refused them entry to the fields because they thought the plague was caused by offended spirits, and killing the locusts would cause more offense.

Instead, people turned to the sorcerers, who "danced in a trance" for several days while the locusts ate all the crops. The 33 hectares of farmland yielded no harvest.

The next year, locusts struck again. Naisa still refused the pesticide team's help, but the other two villages accepted it cautiously. As a result, the two villages had the pests killed and reported a good harvest, but Naisa still had no harvest.

"Even the sorcerers hesitated after seeing other villages' stores full of crops," said Gadan, who made up his mind to learn woodcraft and to live a practical life. In a few years, he made his family better off by working with his hands and became the village head in 1996.

In 1997, continuous rainstorms hit Xigaze Prefecture. The local meteorological station prepared anti-hail rockets at no cost to the villagers, but Naisa decided to collect money and consult the sorcerers.

Later, the rockets saved all the village except Naisa from a strong hailstorm. Naisa then agreed to the rockets. Since then, a popular song from Naisa has been: "Naisa has lots of hails, which can be used to build many walls; Naisa has lots of sorcerers too, but none is capable of avoiding disasters...."

As people lost trust in their supernatural powers, fewer villagers asked them for help. One by one, the sorcerers began farming or found other ways to make a living.

At the same time, the villages hailed the scientific teams sent by the government, which brought expertise and technology.

In 2001, a state's Radio and Television in the Villages project came to remote Naisa and provided every household a television. A library was set up, offering about 1,000 books on farming and other crafts. The county government also established a water supply system and a hospital.

Today, 95 percent of children in Naisa go to school. No villagers are illiterate. The per capita income has risen to 2,600yuan (US$317), five times more than a decade ago.

"When I was a sorcerer, I only earned a basic living. It was impossible to earn more unless I changed jobs," said Gyamco, a former sorcerer who now makes over 10,000 yuan (US$1,220) a year by growing greenhouse mushrooms.

Unlike other villages, Naisa now often invited scientific teams, because they knew the best way to become better off was to rely on science, not supernatural powers, Gyamco said.

The existence of sorcerers reflected people's belief in primal religions. The fear of and respect for ghosts and spirits showed their ignorance, said an official with the Regional Bureau of Religious Affairs.

In recent years, the regional government accelerated programs to eliminate illiteracy and support the poor with science and technology. The illiteracy rate has dropped below 30 percent from 95 percent in 1951, when the region was liberated. Sorcerers were hardly seen in the region today, said the official.

(Xinhua News Agency January 12, 2004)