Note from Jonah: This is the continuation of a photo series from the Great Himalayan Mountain Range. The photos document a journey by car, foot, boat, plane and elephant from Tibet to Nepal.
From Lhasa to the edge of the Himalayan, growth and vegetation on the Tibetan landscape is almost non existent. If you remember back to the Tibetan Cloudscape post, there are very little trees throughout the Tibetan plateau.
The lack of vegetation comes in large part from logging and deforestation which contributes to desertification and other natural disasters such as excessive flooding and major erosion problems which can lead to deadly landslides. Poor land use from the time of the cultural revolution to modern times have played a large role in the degradation of Tibet’s grassland’s as well. After the recent landslide in Gansu province, information came out that they had even anticipated these effects:
A 2006 report by Lanzhou University warned of the dangers presented by the destruction of the forests around Zhouqu for mining and agriculture, causing soil erosion and destabilising hillsides.
“The hills have become highly unstable and easily subject to natural disaster of landslides and mudslides,” the report said. “The situation is the result of deforestation, exploitative mining activities, construction of hydroelectric power plants and other development activities.”
While in Shigatse a sand storm swept though the town. With no growth on the forest floor outside of the town, an ocean of sand took over the town with no notice. Some fled indoors, others took their donkeys and ran, while others stood with squinting eyes and held their ground.
I’ve seen major areas being taken over by deserts in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, but for some reason in Tibet, it seemed strange to see the sands infiltrate towns. In part this was strange because Tibet is so much further South than Inner Mongolia — especially on the Nepalese border. It visually connected a problem that stretches for an entire nation in my mind.
Currently, about 28 percent of China is covered by desert. While desertification is a global problem, deserts are growing faster in China than anywhere else in the world. Each year in China, the desert grows around 900 square miles a year — which is around the size of Rhode Island.
Although their are major efforts going on to combat the problem, the Chinese continue logging within Tibet. Although I’ve not seen it, there was a film made by Tibetans which was smuggled out of the country without the help of foreigners called Cutting Down Tibet which secretly documents current operations. It looks and sounds very interesting.
So — why cut down all the trees? There are many reasons, including mass production of furniture and mass consumption and production of paper. However a more interesting reason to cut down so many trees and create so many sandy towns is China’s massive chop stick production. According to Green Peace China:
In addition to the forty-five billions pairs of disposable chopsticks used each year in China, another eighteen billion pairs are exported. Disposable chopsticks are made, obviously, from wood (in most cases from birch or poplar, but in some cases from expensive bamboo). Greenpeace China estimates that to create that many disposable chopsticks per year, a hundred acres of trees need to be chopped down every twenty-four hours. That means that every day there is a forest the size of a hundred U.S. football fields chopped down … to make chopsticks. If you want to think of it in terms of individual trees instead of land mass, it’s between sixteen and twenty-five million trees per year.
Shigatse: After the Storm
At an elevation of 3900 meters, Shigatse is Tibet’s second largest city after Lhasa. It is the traditional capital of the Tsang Province and home to the Tashilhunpo Monastery. This was one of my favorite monasteries in Tibet. It gives visitors a lot of room to explore, unlike the monasteries in Lhasa where you pretty much get guided around.
Monks, students and visitors were friendly here and the monastery itself is kind of like a small city, with a labyrinth of walls, cobblestone paths and stupas everywhere. The spaciousness of this monastery as well as the seemingly larger monk population made this monastery seem much more authentic.
Also very cool and nontouristy is the Tashilhunpo Kora, a path around the outside of the temple that gives you views of the town and into the monestery. A kora is:
Kora is both a type of pilgrimage and a type of meditation in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. Kora is performed by making a walking circumambulation around a temple, stupa, or other sacred site.
Monks and pilgrims pray while spinning prayer wheels on the path that takes about an hour to walk. From above, looking into the monastery you can see monks singing, playing instruments and praying.
Also, worth a visit is the old city which is very mid-evil feeling. Something like walking into a different time with people milking their cows in the cobblestone streets outside of their houses. There was also not many soldiers around like in Lhasa.
Road Trip on the Himalayan Shelf: If you’re just joining now, here’s what you’ve missed:
- Road trip on the Himalayan Shelf
- Lhasa: City of Sunlight, City in the Sky
- In Tibet, People’s Liberation Army (mostly) out of site, but not out of mind
- Attn: Crayola — a new color for you — Tibetan Blue
- Tibetan Cloudscapes
- Tibetan Prayer Flags Littering Roof of the World
- Should you pay for photos? The ethics of travel photography
- 29 Minutes and 15 Seconds on Mount Everest
- Desertification stretching from Inner Mongolia to Tibet
- ‘The journey not the arrival matters’
- Namaste and welcome to Nepal
- Kathmandu: The greatest place on earth to get lost
- Kathmandu: Full of mystery, culture, history — and trash
- ‘A journey is best measured in friends, rather than miles’
- Who has the strongest necks in the world?
- Hey hey, they’re some monkeys
- After the Himalayan: The Terai
- Watch where you step: Chitwan National Park
- At the end of the road: Pokhara
- Final Destination 8 (in 3D): The luckiest travelers in the world
- Tibet to Nepal: ‘The Journey Not the Arrival Matters’
