感生5. The earth is vast; only home and kinship remain.
Translated talk from Tachung Yizha
Note: For the past month, I have been meeting more people connected to the Tibetan Plateau, as their home or their research site. I am not Tibetan so it was a lot of new information in the quite varied perspectives. One of them is a grass-planting group in the Ruoergai grassland region called Tachung Tsung, organized by Tachung Yizha and his uncle Tachung Barang. I got to know Tachung Tsung through a mutual friend, and tomorrow I will visit them.
Yizha and Barang are both charismatic speakers (seasoned in telling stories that general Han as well as government audience can understand and support).
Below is Yizha’s talk translated from Mandarin to english:
June 5, 2024, Nanjing
“Hello everyone, my name is Zhaqiong Yizha. I'm a local documentary filmmaker, environmentalist, and also a herdsman. I was born on the Ruoergai Grassland, and the grassland is my home.
My hometown, the Ruoergai Wetland, has three characteristics: first, it's one of China's three major wetlands; second, 30% of the Yellow River's water comes from here; and the Ruoergai Grassland is also the largest grassland in northwest Sichuan.
As a herdsman's child, I grew up herding cattle and sheep with my parents. When I was little, the Ruoergai Grassland was incredibly beautiful, with many lakes. My friends and I often played in the lakes. From the day I started school, I gradually drifted away from the herdsman's life and my hometown. In 2010, my parents moved to a herdsmen's settlement, which became our new home. From then on, I was even further removed from the pastoral area.
▲ Herdsmen's settlement (Note: A fixed residence established by people in pastoral areas in specific zones. Image source: Internet)
It wasn't until 2012 that my life underwent a dramatic change.
Following in Uncle's Footsteps
In 2012, I dropped out of school, wanting to work outside and not stay in my hometown. At that time, even if you achieved nothing, staying in the city would still earn you respect.
That year, I also happened to meet my uncle, Zhaqiong Barong. During the Spring Festival, he came to our house and said, "Yizha, you don't have anything to do right now, why don't you come work with me?"
I didn't know what to say or do, so I just agreed.
▲ Yizha and his uncle, Zhaqiong Barong
At that time, he had been working with local herdsmen in our hometown for two years, dedicated to desertification control and ecological restoration. My hometown is the most severely desertified area in Sichuan Province. This is a short film we documented at the time. (Click to view full video)
In 2012, I followed my uncle to interview and film local herdsmen. They all said, "Herdsmen rely on cattle and sheep, cattle and sheep rely on grass, and grass relies on this land. What will we do when this land turns into desert?"
One of the herdsmen told me, "I can live on the grassland this lifetime, but my descendants might not be able to stay on the grassland. Look, the desert is about to cover my house, and my bowl is full of sand."
This statement made me think deeply. When I was in school, I used to go home every holiday, but before 2012, I never realized the severity of desertification in my hometown. If desertification continued like this, herdsmen would lose their homes, and so would I.
So I decided to follow my uncle and these herdsmen to do something for the ecological restoration of the grassland
.
"Overgrazing"
When I was in school, my textbooks always mentioned that the cause of grassland degradation was overgrazing. For example, some multiple-choice questions would ask, "What is the cause of grassland degradation?" The option "overgrazing" was considered very correct.
But when I worked on desertification control with herdsmen and my uncle, I found that it wasn't entirely true. Wetland drainage, mining, cultivation, as well as eliminating pikas, overgrazing, and fences, all contribute to grassland degradation.
So what is the relationship between wetland drainage and grassland degradation?
Forty or fifty years ago, people didn't discuss environmental protection; they discussed improving people's quality of life and feeding themselves. At that time, many people felt that the main economic source for herdsmen was yaks, and yaks survived by eating grass.
But when these people came in June and July, the Ruoergai Wetland was rich in water, with water everywhere. They thought there was too much water, which was a problem. More pasture could support more yaks, so they directly dug ditches to drain the wetland water into the Yellow River. After the wetland dried up, it turned into black soil, and the land slowly desertified.
▲ Ruoergai Wetland
The second factor is mining, which has a history of fifty or sixty years. Mining is most afraid of rain; once it rains, the mine tunnels are prone to collapse, and water will accumulate in the tunnels. So, to prevent rain, people would directly fire shells into the sky to disperse the clouds, preventing rainfall for ten or even five years.
After this, all the mountains in our hometown cracked open. When cattle and sheep walked on them, sand would spill out. If you didn't know this background, you would think that cattle and sheep caused grassland degradation.
Cultivation is the same. People felt that it took too long, one or two or even three years, for herdsmen's cattle and sheep to grow large enough to be sold, which was too slow from an economic perspective. It would be better to directly convert part of the grassland into cultivated land, which would provide annual income.
After cultivation, the turf of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau becomes very thin, and the ground is full of sand. Once it's turned over, it takes about 300 years to recover.
All of these are examples of bringing agricultural ideas into nomadic culture, causing grassland degradation.
The Role of Yaks
We have been working on desertification control for 14 years, and in this process, we have found that anyone can do desertification control, but to truly turn the desert into grassland, herdsmen and their cattle and sheep are indispensable.
My uncle and I are not ecological experts. When we first started desertification control, we invited many experts for guidance. They said that trees and grass should be planted in the desert. So our first step was to plant grass, and the second step was to plant trees.
▲ Planting trees
When planting grass, we used two methods: one was row sowing, like plowing a field;
▲ Row sowing
The other was broadcast sowing, directly scattering seeds in the desert. But when the seeds were scattered, problems would arise: either the wind would blow the seeds away, or the intense sunlight of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau would heat the sand, killing all the seeds.
▲ Broadcast sowing of grass seeds
So what method did we use? The local herdsmen discussed it and said that the seeds just needed to be buried a bit in the desert. They suggested driving yaks over to trample the seeds into the ground.
This was an excellent method, and broadcast sowing became very easy. We just scattered the seeds and brought in the yaks to trample them. In the herdsmen's tradition, they have always protected the grassland through the trampling of yaks.
▲ Traces of yak trampling
In addition, yak dung is also excellent fertilizer. According to our statistics, one yak produces two dung piles overnight, with each pile weighing over three catties (approx. 1.5 kg). We enclose the yaks in the desertification control area, and 1,000 yaks can produce 6,000 catties (approx. 3,000 kg) of yak dung in one night. Therefore, we don't need to spend too much money buying fertilizer or manually spreading it.
▲ Yaks in the control area and yak dung beneficial for grass growth.
With yaks, the work of burying seeds became very easy. Let's look at the results of this simple work.
▲ Swipe left to view the comparison between 2010 and 2012.
We now have over 20 sites showing these changes. If we didn't have the old photos, others wouldn't believe it when they saw it: "How could it be this good?"
I just mentioned that anyone can do desertification control, but for the desert to turn into grassland, subsequent management is very important. For example, there is now a saying about returning pasture to grassland. What kind of problems would arise if there were suddenly no cattle or sheep on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau? In the first and second years, the grass would grow exceptionally well, and everyone would say, "Look, without cattle and sheep, the grass grows so well."
But by the third, fourth, fifth, or even tenth year, when you enter the grassland again, you'll find that your shoes sink in. This is because the roots of the grassland have all degraded, and the grassland has become as soft as steamed buns.
▲ Degraded pasture
So what is our management model? After we plant grass in the desert in the first year, we must moderately graze in it in the second year.
Many people don't understand why, after finally planting grass, they should put yaks in it. The reason is actually very simple: cities have gardens and parks, and they need to be mowed and fertilized every spring. But the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau has not been mowed or fertilized for thousands of years; it has relied on cattle and sheep eating grass and depositing yak dung.
So why only yaks, and not horses or sheep? We were also curious and asked the herdsmen.
They said that a sheep's mouth is very pointed, and it pulls out grass along with its roots when it eats. A horse's mouth is even more destructive, and when it can't eat grass, it will dig out the roots with its hooves.
In contrast, yaks don't have upper teeth, so when they eat grass, they don't constantly pull upwards like other animals. When a yak can't eat grass, it never digs out the roots with its hooves; instead, it licks the grass with its tongue as it moves.
So, if I were to choose the gentlest animal on the grassland now, I would definitely choose the yak. For so many years, we have unfairly blamed yaks.
Don't Start from Scratch
In the 14 years we've been working on desertification control in our hometown, we've successfully transformed 14,000 acres of desert into grassland. However, in 14 years, we've actually done very little, but our work has influenced many herdsmen.
When we started in 2010, we had no cases of desertification control, not even tools. At that time, row sowing required tools, so we customized one ourselves.
In the first year, when the customized tool arrived, the handle was too short, and the herdsmen all said it hurt their backs. In the second year, the handle was made longer, but they said the head was too big. In the third year, the head was too small. It wasn't until the fourth year that we finally made the best tool for row sowing in desertification control.
▲ Changes in row sowing tools. From left to right: first year to fourth year.
Later, we put all these tools and our experience into the ecological restoration team's base.
It's very important to centralize experience. Whenever desertification control is needed, we can set off immediately, building on 14 years of experience instead of starting from scratch. Now the country is also vigorously promoting ecological restoration, investing a lot of funds, and there are many ecological restoration projects. However, the project leaders this year and next year are often different, lacking experience accumulation, which often leads to starting work from scratch.
Therefore, experienced local people are particularly important. They can use our 14 years of experience to continue the work, achieving twice the results with half the effort.
▲ Ruoergai Ecological Restoration Team
Years of desertification control have made me more sensitive to the grassland, just like the issue of garbage. When I come to the city, many of my friends say that throwing garbage in the trash can is the end of it. Because they don't know where the garbage goes, they don't care too much.
But on the vast grassland, if a wind suddenly blows and a piece of garbage is blown over, I am very sensitive; I can see its harm to the grassland. Grassland desertification is the same; I can always see it with my own eyes.
Viewing Hometown Through the Lens
Regarding the desertification control measures I just mentioned, my uncle has already perfected them. So what else can I do? At this point, I thought, perhaps I can spread these things to more people.
So, starting in 2013, I picked up a camera and began to view my hometown through the lens, protect my hometown through the lens, and record my hometown with this philosophy.
▲ Zhaqiong Yizha in 2013
For example, I filmed a documentary about the entire process of desertification control and showed it to the local herdsmen. Because the wisdom of desertification control comes from them, when I gather this wisdom and show it back to them, they feel that they already have yaks, they can collect seeds themselves, and this method is their own.
So they will take action and do something for the grassland; this is the educational function of film.
▲ Screening desertification control documentary for herdsmen
Another example is when people talk about grassland desertification, they often say it has a lot to do with pikas. So I started to focus my lens on pikas.
Through the lens, I gradually saw black-necked cranes eating pikas and foxes eating pikas. Later, as I filmed more deeply, I discovered that there are more than 30 species of animals that fly in the sky and run on the ground that survive by eating pikas on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.
Why are there so many pikas? In fact, there has been a history of killing pikas on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau for over 40 years. Initially, people thought pikas ate grass, so they used poison. The poison at that time was imported from developed countries and was very strong. When pikas ate the poison, their natural predators ate the pikas and were poisoned, and so on, destroying the entire food chain.
However, pikas have a very strong resistance to poison. If they survive this year's poison, then next year's poison will be useless. Moreover, their breeding speed is very fast; they breed twice a year, giving birth to 3 to 6 pups each time. Coupled with the slow growth rate of their natural predators, their numbers gradually increased.
These are all things I learned through the lens. It's very important to pick up a camera and document.
So in 2015, we began to encourage 15 local herdsmen to pick up cameras and document their hometowns. You don't need to understand any language, but through a camera, you can show what you want to say to the whole world.
We have now made over 40 documentaries, all about our hometown. I myself have filmed seven documentaries, and among them, I really like "Little Bird."
The story of "Little Bird" is about a poor herding family whose entire transportation relied on one car. Once, the car was left unused for about 7 days. When the owner wanted to drive it again, a small bird suddenly flew away from the front.
He was curious, so he opened the hood and found a bird's nest with 4 little birds inside.
▲ Swipe left to view (Image source: Documentary "Little Bird")
His family was relatively poor, with not many cattle or sheep, and with a 92-year-old elder and a child less than one year old, there were five people in total, all relying on this car for transportation and livelihood. Yet, he left the car parked for another month and a half until the little birds flew away, and only then did he drive the car.
▲ Image source: Documentary "Little Bird"
So, people online often say Tibetans are very kind, but I don't need to elaborate on the kindness of Tibetans; a film like this can convey that message. "Little Bird" precisely tells how the herdsmen in this place view life, and such things are very common around me. I hope to show the Tibetan respect for life and reverence for nature by documenting real life.
After these documentaries are filmed, they are screened locally. When we ask herdsmen what kind of films they like, some say films about horses, others say Westerns. So when we show them documentaries about herdsmen, they say to each other, "Wow, you're handsome," "Your horse is beautiful," "Our hometown is so beautiful." They feel that I am good, my horse is good, and the grassland is good.
Everyone thinks herdsmen are uncultured, but we give them confidence and dignity through the lens, and we give back their efforts for the grassland to them. This is the true meaning of documentation.
▲ Screening documentaries for herdsmen
The Earth is Vast; Only Home and Kinship Remain
Finally, I want to summarize with two Tibetan proverbs.
The first saying is that this Earth is incredibly vast, and each of us, similarly, will never finish exploring all its places in our lifetime. Yet, everyone's home is so small. My hometown, Gasha Village, is hard to even find on a map, and I only have this one home.
The second saying is that there are many people who walk on two feet, people are everywhere, but each person's relatives, friends, and parents, when added up, number only a dozen or so.
So, the world lacks nothing but two things: a home and loved ones. And if there's one more thing missing, it's the love for them.
I have walked alongside them for the past 12 years, and I will continue to walk alongside them in the future.
Thank you!”