APPENDIX VII: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF SUONAN DAJIE
“Kekexili Desert is called a no-man’s land. Its hostile climate has made it inaccessible to human being, and thus a haven for wild animals. Since 1985, the discovery of gold reserves in Kekexili has caused a frenzied gold rush. Thousands of illegal miners swarmed into the Kekexili. As a result, the number of wild animals … dropped sharply. …
“As the director of the Western Development Committee of Zhiduo County, Suonan Dajie was very concerned about the situation. … Suonan Dajie took it as his mission to crack down on illegal mining and poaching to protect the desert’s natural resources. Since the establishment of the committee in July 1992, Suonan Dajie had spent 354 days in the Kekexili Desert and travelled more than 60,000 kilometres. …
“In 1985 a catastrophic snowstorm hit Zhiduo County. Waist-high snow fell over most of the county and cut off all transportation and communication. The temperature fell to minus 40 degrees Celsius. Thousands of livestock froze to death. Suonan Dajie joined the rescue team to save the herdsmen buried by the storm. … Traditional livestock husbandry was so fragile, he realized. Overnight, the whole economy had collapsed. Was such a fragile economic base truly the road to prosperity? Suonan Dajie began to ponder this question.
“The next year Suonan Dajie was assigned to be chief of Suojia, the poorest of Zhiduo’s townships. There, he began to lead his people to a new way of development. He built roads, surveyed rivers in search of sites for dams, and consulted engineers regarding mineral reserves. But, he saw that the county’s biggest hope lay in Kekexili.
“In 1992 Suonan Dajie was promoted to deputy Party secretary of Zhiduo County. The first thing he did was to set up a Western Development Committee, whose mission was to crack down on illegal mining and poaching in Kekexili, and to protect and scientifically develop its resources. … In July 1993, his proposal finally got approved and Suonan Dajie became director of the committee. ‘No one understood the significance of Kekexili to Zhiduo like Suonan Dajie,’ recalled Zhaduo, a former assistant.[1] …
“In January 1994, Suonan Dajie and six assistants entered Kekexili for the 12th time. From January 8-16, they captured seven groups of illegal poachers… [But] on January 16 they encountered another group of 20 poachers [who] fought back. Suonan Dajie was shot during the fight. Eight days later, he was found dead, still kneeling in the snow with the pistol in hand.[2]”
[1] Zhaduo now is Suonan Dajie’s successor as the leader of Suojia Township. He also is the Director of the Upper Yangtze Integrated Conservation and Development Organization, which was established to further develop the work begun around a decade ago by Suonan Dajie. Zhaduo has said on several occasions that he considers Plateau Perspectives to be the “twin organization” (international counterpart organization) of the local, grassroots Upper Yangtze Organization.
[2] This entire episode still remains in vivid memory of the people of Zhiduo, and also in the memory of many people throughout the Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture.