Ganjia Grasslands

This is Tenzin, as you can see, he's my kind of monk!  He was just as crazy to take photos as I was, but hadn't brought the same film supply, so I had to give him some of mine.  Tenzin, who grew up in the grasslands, but now lives in Labrang Monastery took me and four others on an excursion to the Ganjia Grasslands.  

 

Tenzin, like this novice that we met, was wearing the favored hiking shoes of the Tibetan Plateau, soccer cleats.

The grasslands were fantastic.  It was my first taste of them up close. I took some flower shots, but none turned out as good as these, taken near Machu.  The grasslands are carpeted with flowers!   It's amazingly beautiful.  Birds were singing everywhere.  They haven't been decimated by the many evils of our 'modern' society which is increasingly bereft of bird-song.  One of my fellow travelers had a very large bird book and binoculars.  He looked like he was in seventh heaven, not knowing which direction to train his binoculars first.  

We rented a taxi-van for the day and drove around, stopping here and there.  In the photo above you can see Tenzin and Ali overlooking a small village, similar to this one, below.  

 The oldest 'city' in the region is this one below.  I stood on the twelve foot thick wall which surrounded the village in the shape of a cross and admired the self-sufficiency of the inhabitants.  Protected from the outside world, they had everything they needed at hand.  

We were very lucky to hit a 'moving day' when the nomads of the grasslands pack up their possessions, load them on yak back and take off for greener (or not already grazed) pastures.  They move once every 1-3 months depending on the region and how rich the resources are there.  Though I took half a roll of photos trying to capture the scale of thousands of animals and their families on the march, none of them came out well. The haze of distance and the bright overhead sun conspired against me.  As far as we could see there was a line of sheep, yaks, horses and people.  The dust rolled up and blew off to the side, leaving a clear view of the folks on the move.  Each family moved in two groups.  First the men and older boys, mostly riding horses, would come with the sheep.  Each family had about 300 sheep.  Next the women walking next to yaks laden with the necessities of life and carrying packs and babies would come abreast of us.  Sometimes people stopped to talk to Tenzin, allowing me a chance to shoot the close-ups below.  

One final photo of Tenzin's smiling face seems appropriate!  

Ahwensung  Ahwensung in B and W  Ahwensung Kids  Ahwensung Monks  China  Flowers  Ganjia Grasslands  Hezuo  Karjam  Labrang Monastery Linxia  Linxia Farms in B and W  Linxia Farm Kids  Machu  Machu People  Nomads Near Ahwensung  Qingdao  Xiahe  Xi'an

Andong Mask Dance Festival  Tibetan Photos I Tibetan Photos II

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