While it is not uncommon for herdsmen from the minority Tibetan community to land in disputes and feuds, they face serious hurdles in finding justice for themselves. However, with the arrival of a new judicial remedy, these poor people can seek justice despite linguistic and racial barriers.

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Shaka is a Tibetan herdsman whose story was recently covered by leading news portals in China including the state-run Xinhua News Agency. While Shaka gets into disputes with fellow villagers, solving these issues in the courtroom seems out of the question for him as he is uneducated and cannot speak Mandarin.

There are many people like the 48-year-old Shaka who live off activities like animal husbandry in the remote mountains in China. For them, going to court is too costly and time-consuming.

However, bilingual circuit court services are solving the problems of more than 63.4 percent of the county.

With the dawn of mobile courts, Judges travel to remote areas to solve disputes among people and offer villagers an opportunity to learn more about the law. Over the past five years, mobile courts in China have handled 229 cases, and its judges have traveled over 100,000 kilometers.

Shaka's case was heard by Judge Lhamo Dorje on Aug. 1. Dorje from Gongcha County People's Court is a native Tibetan born and raised in Gangcha.

He heard Shaka's case with four people as jurors on the pasture land where he herds his cattle. The court arrived in a van with the national emblem, court banner desks and chairs needed for the trial. Within a short while, the dispute was put to rest.

While this has brought ease to many people, the traveling court is a risky business for the traveling Judges and jury.

Trips can be onerous, and although vans are loaded with tents, food, cooking utensils, and heavy clothes, it may take days to travel through in the wilderness.

Song Jizhu, the presiding judge of civilian cases in the county court, relates an event about three female judges who got trapped by a piece of collapsed ice on the river. Since they had no other choice, they had to wade into the freezing water and push the jeep out of the river.

"When the rescue team arrived, they found my three colleagues huddled tightly against each other to stay warm, their faces and lips were blue," said Song.

Tagsjustice, china judiciary, China judicial system, China courts, China mobile courts, Ganzi Tibetan autonomous prefecture, Tibetan minority in China, Tibetan Herdsmen, Chinese judge