The Last Of The Mogru Nomadic Clan (a documentary review)

The tourism boom in Mogru town of Tso Ngon region (Ch: Qinghai) has brought in new asphalt laden roads for the nomads so that they could ride faster on their horses to the nearest town! It even brought new faces from far across the mainland China along with their waste to litter at this holy lake of Tso Ngon. If not for these development activities that attracts regular visitors and tourists, the Mogru clans cannot afford in their natural lifetime to visit mainland China to meet and see those peoples wearing flashy clothes with headphones.

Watch the documentary from this link here: 

The Geological Evolution and Seismicity of the Tibetan Plateau

The Geological Evolution of the Tibetan Plateau

The Tibetan Plateau is undoubtedly the most prominent and distinguishable feature on the face of the globe, rightly known as the ‘Roof of the World’.  With an average elevation of around 4500 meters (14,763 ft.) and covering an approximate 2.5 million sq. km of area, it is the largest and highest plateau in earth’s entire geological history. It is surrounded by the Himalaya-Karakoram complex in the south and west that contains 14 major peaks of over 8000 meters including Mount Everest. To the north, the plateau is bounded by the deserts of the Tarim Basin and Tsaidam while a series of alternating deep forested valleys and high mountain ranges marks its eastern periphery.

Degrading Wetlands of the Tibetan Plateau

Every year on February 2, World Wetlands Day is celebrated internationally which marks the anniversary of the signing of the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance (Ramsar Convention) in Ramsar, Iran, on 2 February 1971. The international theme for World Wetlands Day 2012 is ‘Wetlands and Tourism’.

Presently the parties of the Ramsar Convention have 160 contracting members including China who joined the Convention in 1992. The list of Wetlands of International Importance includes 1994 wetlands, with a total area of about 192 million hectares. Out of this 41 sites are located in China, covering an area of 3,709,853 hectares. 

The wetland is known as the "kidney of the earth" and is one of the three major ecosystems along with forest and ocean. The wetland plays a key role in flood control, water conservation, pollution control, environment regulation and so on. It is deemed as a warehouse with water and food for humans as well as a habitat for rare wildlife to overwinter and reproduce. 

Diary of a Tibetan Nomad: the Last Page

Following is a fictitious |diary of a nomadic boy reflecting the impact of China's nomad resettlement program on the Tibetan nomadic lifestyle.

____________________________________________________

At the age of 85, my grandmother suddenly grew weak and unhappy since moving into this concrete house few months back. She gazed at the faraway vast rangeland where small herds of yaks were grazing on the hills, gasped a long breath and whispered in her final voice "Why aren't we in the summer pasture?"

The joyful days of laughter echoing from the numerous holy peaks and valleys were gone. I remember once when father playing a flute while mother singing in her eloquent voice a song in praise of nature echoing from three different peaks, I was so amused and excited listening to their songs that I actually began to sing it thereafter.

EDD submitted a written testimonial to USCC

EDD submitted to the US China Economic and Security Review Commission, a written testimony entitled, "Water Security and Environmental Management on the Tibetan Plateau" which has been posted on the commission's website. 

____________________________________________________________

Water Security and Environmental Management on the Tibetan Plateau

Prepared by

Environmental and Development Desk

Department of Information and International Relations

Central Tibetan Administration

Dharamsala – India

for the United States-China Economic and Security Review Commission

January 26, 2012

EDD at Kalachakra 2012

The commencement of the New Year was marked in India by the ten-day Kalachakra initiation by His Holiness the Dalai Lama from January 1 to 10, 2012 at the sacred Buddhist site of Bodhgaya, India. This highly important Buddhist initiation witnessed the attendance of around 200,000 disciples from 63 countries including over 7000 Tibetans from Tibet. 

During this highly anticipated and eventful gathering, EDD carried out various activities to raise awareness about the problems relating to Tibet’s environment with special focus on the Tibetan pilgrims from Tibet and devotees from western countries.

On January 7, 2012, EDD organized an hour-long talk for a large gathering of Tibetans from Tibet on a range of topics including the significance of Tibetan Plateau, the impact of climate change, mining activities, illegal poaching of the wildlife and China’s policies such as nomad resettlement. It was a rare meeting with Tibetans from across the Himalayas who were attentive throughout some of whom even stayed back after the talk to share their experiences about environmental degradation in their localities back home.

To Dam or Not to Damn the Yarlung Tsangpo

Due to its rising power shortages coupled with increasing international pressure to reduce its carbon emissions, China has dammed all the major rivers originating from Tibet. The most recent case is the damming of the untapped upper reaches of the Yarlung Tsangpo (Brahmaputra). 

A major hydropower project in Tibet at rZam (Tib:ཛམ་; Ch: Zangmu), which began in November 2010, is the first of at least 6 dams proposed on the Yarlung Tsangpo that have been approved. The most ambitious of their project is a 38,000 MW mega dam at Metog (Tib: མེ་ཏོག; Ch: Motuo) on the great bend of the mighty Tsangpo, where the river descents ~2000 m before entering India (Fig. 1). This mega project has the potential to generate output more than twice the capacity of the world's largest power station, the Three Gorges Dam.