APPENDIX VI: HISTORIC ACCOUNTS OF NOMAD LIFE IN SOUTHWEST QINGHAI, CHINA
The following excerpts are based on the observations of Namkhai Norbu in Guoluo and Yushu prefectures in 1951.
“Most of the territories that I traveled through [in the summer of 1951] were sparsely populated, but some were devoid of any human presence; there, wild animals lived free and undisturbed, between high, majestic mountains covered with perennial ice and snow. In some regions many ice-peaked rocky mountains arose and at their feet in the valleys lived herds of deer[1] and flocks of wild sheep known as nawa (ovis nahura).[2]
“The nomads almost always choose for their settling places grassy plains with abundant water where the highland green is studded with innumerable mountain flowers. Herds of Kyang (equus hemionus),[3] wild asses many thousand strong, along with hundreds of wild yaks called drong (bos grunniens),[4] graze on those plateaux along with deer, antelopes called gowa,[5] dre which is a type of marten similar to and slightly larger than the weasel,[6] wild sheep called nyen (ovis hodgsoni)[7] and many other species.
“In the green valleys, where the song of thousands of cranes resounds, stand the rukor, the encampments of yak-hair tents which shelter from 11 to 30 families settled together to better protect themselves and to more easily defend their camp in case of attack…
“A fact we found striking was that thousands of the birds called atakayu lived with the avra.[8] These small birds, grey in color with black beak and dark grey claws, and slightly larger than a canary,[9] live in the same dens as the avra and lay their eggs there.” (pp. xiii-xiv)
“The region of Dzachuka[10] is exclusively inhabited by nomads of 18 great tribes…. In every tribe there is an important family within which the title of chief has long been hereditary, but in reality no chief has the authority to govern all the nomads, nor even some of them. The families who vaunt this title do not even have the right to exact tribute. Here we are dealing with honorary inherited titles, which had been conferred over time, for a variety of reasons, in two kingdoms in eastern Tibet, Derghe and Lingtsang. Most of the tribes now in Dzachuka were under the jurisdiction of the former while the ‘three tribes of the north’ (Changpa Khagsum) were under Lingtsang.
“One of the main tasks of the ‘chiefs’ is to receive the representatives of the two above-mentioned kingdoms when on their periodical official visits to the area as well as the high-ranking lamas who might be traveling in their land. Another of their duties is to organize defences against sudden attacks by enemies and bandits and to lead those under their authority in efforts to pursue and capture them. Where disputes arise between groups … the chief has the authority to represent his group.” (p. 1)
“In the summer, since the grazing grounds change with the seasons, nomads move to the best pastures on the plateaux and mountains; there no private land belonging to single families exists and there is no limitation on where animals may graze, except for the borders between different regions and some zones considered the private property of certain camps.
“Autumn is held to be a particularly good time for the accumulation of dairy produce. In fact, there is a saying amongst the nomads: ‘Autumn milk is half butter.’ In that season the herds are taken to luxuriant pastures near the encampments of the nomads. Each camp has an autumn pasture whose grass was left untouched during the summer, at a lower altitude than the summer grazing grounds, warmer and sheltered from wind and rain.
“Of all the pastures, however, the most important are those where the herds spend the winter. Each camp and most families own winter allotments, for private use. During summer and autumn no one, regardless of social position, is allowed to graze his animals on the winter pastures. If anyone violates this rule, the next spring he will have to pay damages to the family legally occupying those grounds for all their animals dead from hunger over the previous winter, sometimes a considerable number.
“The winter pastures usually lie in green hollows on mountain slopes, in sunny valleys and other warm places, sheltered from rain, snow and storms. There, the nomads build ample pens as high as a man, using animal dung to erect the walls; these enclosures serve to protect the livestock from the wind, storms and attacks of wolves and other wild animals …
“Spring is a difficult and demanding time for the nomads. Their animals, thin and weakened, cannot cover long distances to reach the pastures and at times sleet falls for many days in a row, causing the death from starvation of hundreds of stock. For this reason, the spring pastures, where the grass covered by snow in winter begins to grow again, must be very near the winter ones.” (pp. 40-42)
“Rigya, the general laws that govern relations with the environment, also forbid the gathering of certain tubers and roots such as the dzayung, the yartsa gunbu[11] and the karmog. The nomads, in fact, often say that the yartsa gunbu and the karmog are the treasures of the earth spirits, while the dzayung is their very heart. If anyone should pick them, his community and their livestock will be struck by virulent epidemics that will spread all over the region.
“The gathering of these tubers and roots is very often a cause of conflict between different groups because young people, both male and female, secretly collect them outside their own territory. If discovered by the locals they are stripped of their booty and savagely beaten. This risk is taken because the young have little belief in the stories about those tubers and are far more interested in the tea, silk, cotton and ornaments they can procure bartering them with Chinese traders.
“Every nomad community carries out patrols known as risher over its entire territory in summer and autumn and these are very successful in maintaining order and have a reassuring effect. The youths with the best horses volunteer readily for these expeditions as they have a battle-loving spirit. On these patrols they are very likely to encounter hunters from other regions,[12] thieves, bandits, people violating customary laws or even enemy spies or hostile band out on raids seeking victory in their vendettas. Only when one patrol has been completed is the date of the next one fixed…” (pp. 69-70)
The following excerpts are based on the observations of Dorje Zödba during his travels across the Tibetan Plateau, and in particular from the region of present-day Suojia, shortly after the turn of the century.
“Next we come to … two small countries, of which the northern portions are inhabited by nomads, namely Dsagarnag[13] and Adra Dsamar[14]…. Dsagarnag adjoins Dsachuka[15] and, in its northern part, is a poor country, with very few trees…. Its people live chiefly by hunting. In spring and summer such as possess rifles and horses hunt the stag.[16] In the second or third Chinese moon, say about March-April, the stag’s horns bleed; and there is a great demand in China for the bleeding horns, which are regarded as a strengthening medicine and fetch over Tls. 100 a pair. In winter time they snare the muskdeer,[17] sending the musk to the Jyekundo[18] market. Poor persons hunt the badger[19] and the fox[20] with sticks and dogs, the badger in summer, the fox in autumn, employing the winter in trading the fox-skins; there is nothing for them to do in spring except to go after badger in their burrows, not an easy business, as they go so deep. The fox is not the real fox, but an inferior animals called Be in Tibetan, and Sha-hu in Chinese, whose skin fetches not more than three or four rupees. The badger is called Chü-wa in Tibetan and t’u-t’u-tzu in Chinese; it is hunted both for its skin and for food. The skin is not traded, but made into garments: the flesh is almost as fat as pork. The people of Dsagarnag dress like Tibetans, but the men wear ornaments in their hair, which is not a common practice in Tibet. Unlike the Golok and Dsachuka peoples, the men have queues, and their customs vary much among themselves. Their lamaseries are most of the Karju sect.
“Adjoing Dsagarnag, and west of it, is Adra Dsamar, also a small country, not quite so poor as the former, but otherwise much the same…. The people are poorly clad and robbers abound. When I was there about twenty years ago [around 1906], the country was being terrorized by a robber chief styled Gedmo Dagjel, who wore princely clothes and had a following of about 100 men, all splendidly dressed, well mounted, and properly equipped with guns and tents. Adra Dsamar is all rocky hills and grassy plains, but the grass is poor, and, as in Dsagarnag, the people live chiefly by hunting, dwelling in yak-hair tents and wearing sheepskin coats.” (pp. 110-111)
“[An] annual excursion takes place in autumn [in Guoluo] in pursuit of the wild yak, or Drung, an animal almost as big as the elephant, that lives in herds of one or two hundred all over the northern nomad country, but mostly in Golok and Dsachuka. … When living with the herd, the drung is not very fierce; but if solitary, he is a man-killer…” (p.108)
The following excerpts are from an account of a trip that was made to Zhiduo in the early 1990s. Although I do not necessarily agree with all the views expressed here, it is nonetheless a unique and valuable description of this remote area in modern times.
“Each Spring, when the ground thaws, gold diggers rush to the Qinghai plateau. … Qinghai is one of the most remote and less known provinces of China. [The province] opened to the outside world less than five years ago, and every year, there are less then ten foreigners who have ventured as far as Yushu. The region is considered ‘forbidden’ and special permits are required[21]…
“Gold fever has invaded the Chinese West. From April until the end of October, there are several hundred of carts traveling between Xining and Yushu, toward the sources of the great rivers.[22] The Yellow river, the Blue river,[23] and the Mekong all come from this area of the high Tibetan plateau. Gold is plentiful in the red sands of the region. According to the Chinese information agency (Xinhua), there are more than ten active gold mines, producing more than 200 kgs of gold in 1991. In 1992, more than 150,000 Chinese gold diggers made their way to Qinghai, according to the local authorities. Most of them are business owners, from the suburbs of Xining, the largest city in Qinghai… According to the local Tibetans, the first gold diggers started arriving in the early 1980’s but over the last two years the number of adventurers and other types of pioneers can be likened to full fledged gold rush.
“Zhiduo, about 200 km [north]west of Yushu is a typical ‘mushroom town.’ Located in a spectacular area of red rocks covered with snow, [Zhiduo] is at the end of the ‘road’ on the maps. … Beyond Zhiduo lies the unknown: frozen marshes, the kingdom of the wild yaks, the snow leopard and the Tibetan wolves.[24] A few nomads are the only ones to venture in this high desert (+16,000 feet); they do not talk about it. By the bridge over the river, there are many gold diggers busy panning for gold. But it is only a first stop. Thirty miles further[25] lays the ‘gold country,’ where foreigners are prevented from going by the army.[26] There, thousands upon thousands armed with a shovel and sieve are looking for gold.[27] Zhiduo’s only street is flanked by wood houses on both sides.[28] Pool tables, right on the street, are surrounded by tens of unlucky Chinese adventurers wearing dark glasses against the intense light. At night, the yak oil plant in the middle of the village doubles as a saloon where the Chinese population and a few Tibetans gather and dance tangos and waltzes under the strobe lights. According to the Tibetans, the wave of Chinese settlers has been continually growing since the summer of 1992…
“Approximately 20 [nature] reserves have been [established on the Tibetan Plateau]… However, Chinese tourist agencies, such as the Hunting Association, organize safaris for foreigners interested in hunting threatened species. The price varies according to the trophy: From $50 for a Koslow pika[29] to $50,000 for a wild yak, a species that is considered threatened by extinction.”[30]
[1] White-lipped deer (Cervus albirostris)
[2] Blue sheep (Pseudois nayaur)
[3] Tibetan wild ass (Equus kiang)
[4] Tibetan wild yak (Bos grunniens)
[5] Tibetan gazelle (Procapra picticaudata)
[6] Steppe polecat (Mustela eversmanni)
[7] Tibetan argali (Ovis ammon
hodgsoni)
[8] Plateau pika (Ochotona curzoniae)
[9] Probably the white-rumped snowfinch (Montifringilla taczanowskii)
[10] The Dzachuka region is situated in the eastern part of present-day Yushu prefecture.
[11] Yartsa gunbu is known as “caterpillar fungus” (chongcao in Chinese), a valuable traditional Chinese medicine.
[12] These environmental patrols have their modern equivalent in the “Wild Yak Brigade” of Zhiduo’s “Western Development Committee.” This unique brigade patrols the vast Kekexili district, but its overall effectiveness has been limited by financial and other constraints (Shi 1997, Bay 1999). The 45,000 km2 Kekexili (Hoh Xil) Nature Reserve is now being managed by the provincial forestry bureau, and plans for a 236,000 km2 nature reserve – to encompass the source areas of the Yellow, Yangtze and Mekong rivers in Guoluo, Yushu and Haixi prefecture – were recently announced at the provincial and national levels (‘China plans…’ 2000). However, the county and township levels were not even consulted in its creation.
[13] To the best of my knowledge, the area of Dsagarnag described here coincides with Zhahe Township of Zhiduo County. Zhahe is halfway between the Zhiduo administrative center and Suojia Township.
[14] To the best of my knowledge, the area of Adra Dsamar described here coincides with Suojia Township of Zhiduo County.
[15] Dsachuka is the situated in present-day Chengduo County (east of Zhiduo County) and in Shiqu County (in northwest Sichuan).
[16] The stag referred to here is the white-lipped deer (Cervus albirostris), which still is in present in Zhiduo in small numbers. Around 200 deer now live in semi-captivity in the “farm” on the hillside behind town, primarily for the collection and sale of their antlers.
[17] Musk deer (Moschus sifanicus, = M. chrysogaster)
[18] Jyekundo is the old name of Yushu town, the prefecture administrative center, also known as Gyegu.
[19] Himalayan marmot (Marmota himalayana)
[20] Tibetan sand fox (Vulpes ferrilata)
[21] An “Alien Travel Permit” (ATP) is still required to travel to Zhiduo and many other places in Qinghai.
[22] Many seasonal outsiders come to collect chongcao, or “caterpillar fungus” (also see Norbu 1997).
[23] The “Blue River,” or Lancang, is known outside China as the Mekong River. The correct name here is rather the Nujiang, also known as the Salween River.
[24] The small administrative center of Suojia lies around 260 km beyond Zhiduo town.
[25] Probably in Doucai Township. Zhahe, Doucai, and Suojia are the westernmost townships of Zhiduo.
[26] It is now possible to travel anywhere in the province, including this area, as long as proper permits are secured. However, obtaining permits is never guaranteed. Permits for Zhiduo can be requested in Yushu.
[27] Many gold miners were also present in October 1999. Lacking sufficient income, the local government has recently begun to give gold mining permits to outside individuals and businesses, most from Haidong in northeast Qinghai. The government is thus able to generate some additional revenues through taxation, which is now necessary to fund some of their routine operations and to pay government workers’ salaries.
[28] All the street-front buildings in Zhiduo were renovated (given a ‘facelift’) with ceramic tiles in 1999.
[29] This “hunting fee” is questionable, and probably refers to a “research fee” instead. Koslov’s pika (Ochotona koslowi) was discovered in 1884 near the border of Xinjiang and Tibet. It is now extremely rare and has a very small geographic distribution (Smith et al. 1990, Li 1999).
[30] Schaller and Liu (1996) estimate that only 15,000 wild yak (Bos grunniens) survive in the world.