World China Tibet Lhasa

China & Nepal 2009

Back Country Tibet Apr 9, 2009

Our 4th day in Tibet is going to be really hard to describe. We drove out to Nam-Tso lake, high in the mountains - about a 4 hour drive each way. This was the day we got to see "real Tibet". We left Lhasa, at about 12000' elevation, and drove through mountain passes marked at 5190 meters (approx 17000'). The lake itself is the highest in the world at 4750 meters(approx 15,500'). If walking around at those elevations doesn't help us get some early altitude acclimation, nothing will. But we were definitely huffing and puffing just walking on relatively flat terrain, and boy was it cold with the wind plastering our clothes against our bodies. It gave us a taste of what was yet to come, and yes it is pretty intimidating. We are working on our mental preparation more now, especially after a taste of what it will be like at Everest. However that was not what impressed us most about the day. We say so much of how most Tibetans live: fields of pasture (with practically no grass) with herds of yak, sheep, and goats, their shepherds sitting or laying on the ground watching out for them. Tents made of skin pitched nearby that the people living for most of the year as they follow their herds from place to place finding what sparse food is to be had on the rocks. Families will own any where from 5-30 yaks, but herd them together with those of other families to make herds that look as large as 1000. But each family knows the mannerisms and personalities of their own yaks without marking them, so there is little confusion. Some yaks have a flag of sorts woven into their shaggy fur, which means they're "on holiday". Those yaks have performed some special service, and as a reward they are left to wander the hills for an entire year. The head of the household then finds it (somehow) and brings it home again. On our way out of town,we passed some local people making a pilgrimage to Lhasa city. They were about 60 km outside of the city, and they were prostrating themselves on the ground, body length by body length, along the shoulder of the highway. Most of the houses had solar panels, or make-shift solar disc, for power as there is no electricity to many places here. Farmers were out in the fields plowing with teams of yaks, or else with bizarre tractors that they built themselves using the motor from a rototiller attached to the chassis of an old truck, with a cut in the center beam with a pin so that the front can rotate and steer. Others are out with hoes and spades, working the ground by hand, to grow barley, wheat, potatoes,and something "for oil" as our guide put it. Funny thing is, there's really no soil, or at least soil like we think of it. The mountains are basically like giant piles of gravel, with maybe some slabs of rock underneath. Tibetan soil is a greyish sandy looking stuff, full of stones. Watching somebody working the fields, it just looks like they're hoeing rocks. They've got ridges where they carefully funnel some water, which they then painstakingly scoop out pail by pail to water the areas where they perceive it to be dryer. And yet somehow they manage to grow crops. One oddity is that many houses have a pool table outside the front door, complete with a little tent cover for the elements. I guess you take what entertainment you can get when you live so remotely. Piles of neatly stacked yak dung are located beside every house, as long as the yaks are pooping, they'll have heat and a means of cooking - since there is no wood being so high above the tree line. In the countryside, where the nomads tend their herds, there are small piles of larger rocks. Our guide explained that the shepherds, in their free time, collect these piles for later, when they eventually will build houses with them. Can you imagine, carrying rocks down from 15000', a few at a time, until you have enough to stack up an build a house? Incredible. While we were at the lake,nomads who reside there (or local people, as our guide called them) cooked us lunch in a restaurant- basically a trailer with a dung stove in the middle of it-consisting of hearty vegetable soup, yak yogurt with sugar, and shredded fried potatoes. Another table was eating dried yak meat and rice. The locals were hilarious, they had donkeys that they would sell rides on to the tourists. In the time we were there, 3 small buses arrived at various times. The locals would gallop to the bus, and crowd around the door so that nobody could even get off the bus. And there were always more donkeys than tourists. The kids tried to beg for our sunglasses, or sweets, and would carry around baby goats and ask for money to take their picture. The lake itself was still frozen when we got there - not the utopian blue water from glacial melt that we had been promised - but we didn't care. It was worth the drive, just to see and experience the life that we saw. Oh, and on the way back to Lhasa 8 hours later, we passed the pilgrimage people again. They were still prostrating themselves, body length by body length. They had only gone perhaps 1 or 2 kms since that morning. Our guide said some might camp in the ditch overnight, if they had a tent. Those who didn't own one would just sleep in their clothes on the side of the road or in the field. The temperature was about 5 degrees celsius at that point, and falling. You just can't describe something like this day; it's just too emotional in the seeing of it. I can't even find the words to say how difficult these people's lives are, compared to ours. We are all so lucky to have and live where we do.