8 minute read
Travelogue
Hildegard Diemberger
Travelling the Himalayas
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Photograph by Hildegard Diemberger
Tibet – life on the ‘third pole’
Old Tibetan saying: “In this landscape you feel lost until you realise the sky is your tent”
In my last article on Tibet I provided some background on the history and culture of the country. In this article, I am going to give you my impressions of life on the arid grasslands of the Tibetan plateau in the 21st century.
There has been some romanticising of the image of the noble nomadic Tibetan herding the iconic yak on the extensive grasslands of the plateau. This has partially been nostalgia from those who departed to Nepal in the 1950s with the arrival of the Chinese. In fact, life on the plateau is tough, and although conditions have improved significantly in the last few decades (e.g life expectancy, maternal deaths, infant mortality, access to education) my time in a yak skin tent in sub-zero temperatures is not high on my list of enjoyable experiences!
Although the image of the nomad is probably the one most identified with Tibet, there were in fact historically four main life styles: Drogpa the nomads, people living from pastoralism, Shingba the farmers, Samadrog the people living from farming and pastoralism and Tsongba the traders. The nomads lived in the traditional yak hair tents, moving with their herds to find the best grass. The tents are usually made from yak wool that has been hand spun into yarn, and it takes about a year to make a medium sized tent. The farmers and Samadrog lived in small villages, in houses with mud walls covered in yak dung pats drying for the fire.
Historically, many of these individuals would have worked for the estates of the aristocrats or monasteries. However, although several complex changes in land and property ownership have taken place since the Chinese arrived, the current situation still includes all these categories, together with new ones such as retail in the cities, tourism, construction, industry and mining.
There has been an attempt by the Chinese government to discourage pastoralism with an extensive programme of house building and encouragement to sedentarism. It is argued that this is to protect the grassland, but it also provides more effective state control. The causes for grassland degradation are disputed but it is probably due to a combination of climate change, increase in burrowing rodents due to a planned loss of natural predators and some overgrazing, especially of cashmere goats. However, there is still a lot of nomadic pastoralism, which is becoming more profitable with better types of sheep and goats and the increasing price of yak meat due to increasing demand.
Agriculture has become more efficient with better irrigation, fertilisers and pesticides. When I first visited in 2004 ploughing was still carried out with a primitive share using yak teams, threshing and winnowing was still done by hand, and tractors were only available near to the capital. Now this has changed with more mechanisation. Attempts to introduce non-Tibetan crops has generally not been successful as the conditions are so harsh.
Life styles have changed with more use of trucks and motorcycles, and solar panels are often seen outside the tents to power mobile phones, TVs and computers (mobile phone coverage is better than in my cottage in Melbourn!).
Putting yak dung on house wall to dry. Photograph by Bruce Huett
Tent with solar panel. Photograph by Bruce Huett
In Mongolia, I have even heard of ‘nomads’ monitoring their camel herds from computers in town, remotely filling water tanks in the desert when needed. Despite this, the cooking is still on yak dung fires, sleeping is under yak wool blankets and Tibetan yak butter tea is always the welcoming drink when one arrives at a tent. This causes problems as the tea needs to be constantly sipped or it congeals, but this results in top ups which it is impolite to refuse and you can imagine the uncomfortable consequential trips to the very primitive hole in the ground latrines!
Tibet has a fairly uniform climate: freezing and dry in winter and mild to cool and dry in summer. There is strong solar radiation because of the high altitude, which causes a large variation between night and day temperatures. Much of the country to the West is semi desert.
Food is largely traditional and very nutritious to help with living in these extreme conditions. Tsampa (roasted barley flour) mixed with yak butter tea is the staple – breakfast, lunch and dinner. It is particularly delicious when moulded into a ball with molasses – very useful on all day trips in the desert with no habitation – the Tibetan equivalent of Kendal mint cake! Yak stews with Tibetan radish (mouli) are delicious and eggs are an occasional delicacy in a village or a monastery. Another tasty dish is the Tibetan dumpling: the momo. These contain meat and/or vegetables and are steamed or fried. When cooking isn’t feasible, air dried meat bitten off the bone is the alternative: good for exercising the jaw! Until the Chinese started to move into rural areas fresh green vegetables and fruit were virtually non-existent, but now Chinese restaurants are appearing on the newly constructed highways across the plateau and greenhouses are quite common. Strangely, although the lakes are well stocked with fish these are not eaten. There are many theories about why this might be, ranging from a king who got ill from eating shellfish, through local interpretation of Buddhist doctrines to a high mineral content in the flesh. There were also problems with the local salt, which did not contain iodine, so goitres were very common in certain areas.
The distinctive and wonderfully decorated traditional clothing is still worn a lot and treasured as a cultural heritage. Simple garments would have traditionally been made at home by knitting or using family looms, which I have seen still being used across the plateau. Chupas are heavy, wraparound woollen or sheepskin robes or capes worn by both men and women. They are folded across the body and held in place with a sash or belt with a decorated shirt or blouse underneath. Sheepskin hats and highly decorated boots are common.
The women wear elaborate silver jewellery for special occasions, embellished with pearls, jade, amber, semi- precious stones and pieces of conch shell.
In contrast children, can wear a fascinating combination of Nike shoes and traditional Tibetan hats!
In Lhasa, the capital, there is now an interesting combination of traditional Tibetan clothing shops (some aimed at tourists), western fashion shops and some which fuse both styles.
Rural villagers in traditional clothing. Photograph by Bruce Huett
Traditionally, marriage was carefully planned to maximise family wealth, although love could intrude, as it always does. Polyandry, one wife with several husbands, often brothers, is still practised and is legal in certain Tibetan areas of China. It is thought that the main reason for this appearing in societies is to consolidate family animal holdings or land and prevent them being split up between brothers (primogenitor – first son inheriting everything – is not the normal inheritance pattern). The one child policy was waived in Tibet where two children were allowed (the policy has now been abandoned).
Communities would have been co-ordinated by elected village ‘elders’, but this was replaced by Cadres under the Chinese system. They have the difficult role of balancing government directives with local cultural preferences, and in my experience do this fairly skilfully, although now the local Tibetans are being replaced by Han Chinese officials in some areas. Although the Tibetan cadres are nominally affiliated to government policies, I have visited houses of officials where Buddhist imagery, even altars, are present, but often with a picture of Mao on an adjacent wall!
So, the life style still maintains a hint of the mystery and enigma that attracted the Victorian explorers but, like the other places we have visited, it is changing and globalisation is having its effect. I wonder how many of the next generation, now much better educated and travelled, will want to continue the hard life of the nomad on the ‘roof of the world’. Bruce Huett
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