Nature and fauna of Tibet. Essay on Tibetan nature

Hello, dear readers– seekers of knowledge and truth!

Tibet is an amazing place. The most interesting and sometimes sad history, placers, caves, the highest mountain peaks of the Himalayas, dozens of different nationalities make this area unique. But separate interesting topic- These are the animals of Tibet.

Today we want to introduce you to the fauna of the Tibetan expanses. The article below will tell you what animals you can meet while traveling in Tibet, how they differ from their relatives living in our area, and what danger they face today.

We are sure that today you will discover something new.

Diversity of fauna

Tibet has a rather harsh climate. In summer, the average daily temperature here is 5-15 degrees Celsius, but in winter the thermometer drops below zero, and the cold can reach -20 degrees. However, there is little precipitation overall throughout the year.

This climate naturally affects the flora and fauna. The Tibetan expanses are mostly located in the highlands of the Himalayas or at the foot of the mountains, on the soil of which it is difficult to grow a large number of agricultural crops.

That is why Tibetans are mainly engaged in animal husbandry. They have long known what “domestication” of animals is.

70 percent of all Tibetan land is occupied by pastures, where huge herds constantly movehomeanimals.

The locals are very careful about our smaller brothers, so they managed to preserve such types of pack animals that are considered rare in our time:

Bactrian camel;
Przewalski's horse;
Kulan is a wild Asian ass.

Kulan (wild ass)

In addition, goats and sheep graze on the pastures. Such animals are unpretentious in food and can withstand even significant temperature fluctuations.

The attitude of Tibetans towards animals was influenced by the law, which prescribes to treat all living things with care, not to cause harm, and to refrain from excess consumption of meat. In the mid-17th century, the V Dalai Lama issued a special decree protecting animals andnaturewhich Tibetans still observe today.

Walking through the steppes of Tibet, you can immediately notice small holes small mammals: hares, marmots, gophers, jerboas, ferrets, voles, gerbils, stoats and pikas - small, cute rodents that look like a cross between a hamster and a hare.

Among the predators in Tibet, there are lowland gray wolves and mountain red wolves, lynxes, Tibetan foxes, scavenger bears, and leopards are very rare. Pandas that eat bamboo are found only in the west of Tibet.

Tibetan fox

But most of all there are ungulates, which thrive in the hilly terrain.

These include:

Tibetan gazelle;
white-lipped deer;
lama;
kulan
kiang – something between a kulan and a horse;
Mountain sheep;
orongo antelope;
hell's antelope;
bharal – wild sheep;
musk deer - a deer-like artiodactyl;
takin is a strong one, similar to a bull, but larger in size.

Kiang

There are many representatives of the animal world and birds. Some of them, for example, crows, live close to homes, often causing considerable damage to households.

Others are considered scavengers, and huge swarms of them can be observed when other animals die. These include Himalayan vultures, snowy vultures, also known as “kumai”.

According to Tibetan beliefs, Kumai helps a person after death, freeing him from the physical body and escorting him to heaven.

Cranes, ibises, and red ducks settled near the water and in marshy areas; snowcocks, finches, and Tibetan sajies settled in the steppes.

Little animals unknown

As you can see, the fauna of Tibet is striking in its diversity. At the same time, some animals seem so familiar and dear, while many have only heard about others. We would like to introduce you better to some amazing inhabitants Tibetan spaces.

This is a large animal from the mammal family, similar to bulls and bison. Wild yaks can be more than four meters in length and more than two meters in height.

Domestic yaks are slightly smaller in size. Strong and resilient, with short powerful legs, they are capable of carrying multi-kilogram loads.

Yaks are now known in many countries, but they are believed to have originated in Tibet, where they appeared about ten thousand years ago. Yaks feel great in the highlands: in winter they live at an altitude of 4 thousand meters, and in summer they rise even higher - 6 thousand meters. They do this because at temperatures above +15 they begin to experience overheating, and the higher in the mountains, the cooler.

Yak on the farm is a great wealth. In addition to helping to carry heavy loads, yaks are used for meat. And their wool and skin are used for various purposes. It is made from:

yarn;
fabric for clothing;
ropes;
harness;
souvenirs.

Expenses for yaks on the farm are practically zero - they protect themselves from the cold and enemies, and get their own food.

Musk deer

This is a small cloven-hoofed animal, similar to a deer, but smaller in size. It reaches only about a meter in length, 70 centimeters in height, and the tail is very short – about five centimeters. But the main thing that distinguishes them from deer is the absence of antlers.

The musk deer is amazingly jumping - it can climb trees and jump from branch to branch to a height of four meters. Fleeing from predators, she, like a hare, covers her tracks.

The main jewel of the musk deer is the musk gland on the males’ belly. One such gland contains ten to twenty grams of musk. This is the most expensive animal product - it is used in medicine and especially in perfumery.

Takin

Takin also belongs to the artiodactyls. At the withers it reaches a meter, and its length is about one and a half meters. For its size it is very massive - more than 300 kilograms.

At the same time, the movements of the takin may seem clumsy from the outside. It lives in bamboo mountain forests at an altitude of four kilometers. But in winter, when there is not enough food, it descends to 2.5 kilometers.

Orongo

Orongos are often called antelopes, but in fact they are also closely related to saigas and ibexes. Their dimensions are 1.2-1.3 meters in length and approximately a meter in height, and they weigh only about 30 kilograms.

In the mornings and evenings, orongos can be seen grazing in the steppes, and during the day and night, when cold winds blow, they hide in special holes. They dig these holes themselves with the hooves of their front legs.

In 2006, a railway was built to Lhasa, which passes right through the habitat of the orongo. In order not to disturb the animals, 33 passages were specially built for their movements.

The Zou is an unusual domestic animal obtained by crossing a cow and a yak. In Mongolia it is known as hainak, and in Tibet and Nepal as dzo.

Genetics really works wonders: dzo are stronger than ordinary cows, and they also produce much higher milk yields. Dzo bulls cannot have offspring, therefore, when crossed with ordinary bulls, Dzo cows give birth to calves that are only one-fourth yaks - they are called “ortum”.

Many animals in Tibet are in danger - thirty species are already included in the Red Book. Among them are the musk deer, takin, and orongo already known to us. To complicate matters, wealthy tourists can even hunt endangered species for thousands of dollars.

Conclusion

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Tibet is a mysterious land of ancient Buddhist monasteries. The great rivers of Southeast Asia originate in its mountains. The longest and deepest gorge in the world, Dihang, is recognized as a true miracle - the place where the Brahmaputra broke through the Himalayas. On the border of Nepal and Tibet, the highest peak of the planet, Chomolungma (“Divine Mother of the Earth”), or in European terms Everest (8848 meters), rises to the skies.

Tibet - description and detailed information

Tibet is a historical region. In 1965, on a large part of its territory, the Chinese authorities created the Tibet Autonomous Region, including its outlying lands as part of several Chinese provinces. Tibet is located on the gently rolling or flat plains of the Tibetan Plateau, which is surrounded to the south by the Himalayan Range and to the north by the Kunlun Mountains.

The entire territory between these natural boundaries is collected into frequent folds of relatively short latitudinal ridges with a height of more than 6000 meters (Trans-Himalaya, Tangla). In the east, the crested waves of the mountains gently bend to the south. Sandwiched between mountain ranges are countless basins and valleys cut by rivers. Below all of them is the valley of the Brahmaputra River (3000 meters), where almost all of Tibet's agriculture is concentrated, although along the banks eastern rivers There are also small agricultural lands.

Composed of granites and gneisses, the Tibetan Plateau - the most extensive and high-mountain plateau in the world - rose from the bowels of the earth as a result of intense processes of alpine orogenesis.

At the same time, the mountain systems of the Himalayas and Kunlun were formed. Average height highlands - 4000 - 5000 meters, although there is no shortage of seven-thousander peaks.

Thanks to summer monsoons, bringing moisture from Pacific Ocean, this region is rich in vegetation. Fresh and salt lakes formed in the mountain depressions, the largest of which are Nam Tso, Siling Tso, Ngantse Tso and Tongra-yum-Tso. However, as you move to the west, there are fewer and fewer lakes, the river network becomes less and less frequent, and the landscape begins to be dominated by scree and deserts, devoid of any vegetation.

The snow-capped mountains of Tibet are the source of many of Southeast Asia's great rivers, including the Yangtze, Mekong, Salween, Indus and Brahmaputra. Small rivers, not having the strength to break through the mountains, feed numerous lakes with their waters. The sources of the Mekong and Salween are in Southeast Tibet.

The Brahmaputra River originates near the western tip of Nepal and runs about 1200 km from west to east, supplying almost the entire population of Tibet with fresh water. From time immemorial, a road has been running along its shores, connecting the local cities and villages.

Tibet's population is small - only about 2.3 million people live in its vast territory. The main administrative, religious center and largest city of the region is Lhasa. Small industrial enterprises are concentrated in the towns of Shigatse, Nyangtse and Chamdo. The northern part of the region is the least populated.

The main occupations of Tibetans are pastoralism and farming. Wheat, barley, corn, tobacco and vegetables are grown in the river valleys. Goats, sheep and yaks are raised everywhere, and in the highlands they are widely used as pack and draft animals.

Tibet lies in an area of extremely dry subtropical continental climate with a pronounced vertical gradation of climatic zones.

The average January temperature ranges from 0 degrees C in the south to -10 degrees C in the north; July - from +5 to +18 degrees C. In Lhasa, located at an altitude of 3630 meters, thermometers during the day show from +7 degrees C to -8 degrees C. There is little precipitation. The southwest monsoons, which bring heavy rainfall to India, are unable to overcome the high Himalayan ranges.

Throughout Tibet, sparse tundra, steppe and desert vegetation predominates; forests grow only in river valleys. Above 6000 meters the zone of eternal snow and glaciers begins.

Until 1950, Tibet was essentially an independent state, but the communists who came to power in China after the 1949 revolution decided that it was an integral part of the PRC. In October 1950, Chinese troops entered Tibet under the pretext of helping the country advance “along the path of progress.”

The Chinese rule Tibet, but not the souls of its inhabitants.

Culturally, especially since the spread of Buddhism in these parts (XI-XIV centuries), Tibetans are much more closely connected with India, having adopted from it all the achievements of ancient spiritual culture - from writing, art and architecture to science and philosophy. Of all the elements that make up the national identity of the Tibetans, their original religion occupies the main place.

Buddhism came to Tibet in the 7th century - its traditions were brought with them by the wives of King Srontzen Gampo, one of whom was Nepalese and the other a Chinese princess. By the 11th - 12th centuries, through the efforts of immigrants from India, the position of Buddhism in Tibet had significantly strengthened - large monasteries grew up everywhere, not only becoming centers of learning and education, but also securing the right to spiritual leadership of Tibet (in Europe, the Tibetan version of Buddhism is usually called Lamaism).

The oldest religion of the Tibetans was Bon, which was a bizarre combination of shamanic magic and animism. The adherents of this cult called themselves "Bon-po". The meaning of the word "bon" is not fully understood. According to some scientists, it meant a shamanic spell, the muttering of magical formulas. In some places this religion has survived to this day, but in a modified form, having absorbed many elements of Buddhism.

The highest deity of Bon is the merciful Kun-tu-bzang-po - the lord of heaven, earth and the underworld, who created the universe from mucus and living beings from eggs. Other deities subordinate to him: the lord of chaos in the form of a blue eagle, 18 male and female deities of living nature and a countless army of minor gods - half-humans, half-beasts with wings, heads and torsos of wolves, snakes or pigs.

Ancient Tibetans believed in spirits and demons living in mountains, lakes, rivers, hollow trees or rocks. High in the mountains, even today you can see stone mounds (lartsze) - silent witnesses to the cult of the mountains. In the 17th century, lamas from Drepung Monastery near Lhasa introduced a theocratic system of government headed by the Dalai Lama (“Dalai” means “immeasurable ocean”).

The current XIV Dalai Lama remains the ruler of Tibet for his compatriots, no matter where he is. Having lived in exile for a long time, the Dalai Lama wages a tireless struggle for the freedom, rights and dignity of his people, for which he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989. The Panchen Lama is the second spiritual leader of Tibet after the Dalai Lama. In 1950, the 10th Panchen Lama was only 12 years old. At first he supported Beijing and enjoyed the favor of the Chinese authorities, but in 1960 he published a list of Chinese crimes in Tibet and publicly expressed hope for gaining independence, for which he was imprisoned for 14 years.

Until his death in 1989, the Panchen Lama fought to the best of his ability to preserve the culture and nature of Tibet. The Dalai Lama recognized him as the new incarnation of six-year-old Gedhun Chekyi Nyima, but a few days later the boy and his parents disappeared under mysterious circumstances, and the Chinese enthroned a Panchen Lama of their own choosing. Tibet's greatest shrine is the Jokhang, the first Buddhist temple founded in 641.

At the entrance to the temple there is a stone obelisk from the 9th century in memory of the good neighbor agreement concluded in those ancient times. The inscription on it reads: “Tibet and China retain the lands and borders that they currently control. Everything to the east is China, and everything to the west is undoubtedly the land of the great Tibet. Neither side will go to war against each other and will not seize other people’s lands.”

Nowadays, this inscription sounds like the dream and cherished aspiration of all Tibetans. Back in the 50s of the 20th century, there were about 600 thousand monks and over 6000 monasteries in Tibet, which were the true centers of Tibetan culture. The temples housed golden statues, ancient paintings and many other precious relics. There were also libraries in which, along with sacred texts, treatises on medicine, astrology and politics were carefully kept.

The vast highland country, consisting of the highest ranges and peaks of the Pamirs, Tibet and the Himalayas on the planet, is rightfully considered the “roof of the world”. It is located in Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, China, India, Nepal, Bhutan and Burma.

The attitude of the XIV Dalai Lama towards other religions is based on complete religious tolerance. He calls for broad dialogue and a joint search for solutions to the problems facing humanity. His Holiness is highly respected throughout the world as an outstanding spiritual leader and statesman.

The sky-high plateau of the Tibetan Plateau is surrounded from the south by the highest mountains on the planet - the Himalayas, and from the north - by the harsh Kunlun Mountains. In ancient times, all the most important trade routes the Asian continent avoided this inaccessible region.

Tibet is one of the most mysterious and inaccessible places on the planet. Secluded Buddhist monasteries rise high in the mountains. The highest (at an altitude of 4980 meters) is the Rongphu Monastery. Tourists learn that life in Tibet follows a special course prescribed by the authorities when they have to obtain permission to enter and travel only along permitted routes under the watchful eye of a guide.

The residence of the Dalai Lama was the Potala Palace in the holy city of Tibet - Lhasa. Today, desolation reigns in the prayer and throne rooms of the palace. There is a cafe in the council chamber of the Tibetan government, and a Chinese flag flies on the roof of the palace. Lhasa became a typical communist city with wide streets, monuments at crossroads and a parade ground in front of the Potala Palace.

Old houses and narrow shady streets disappeared without a trace. Over the past 30 years, the city's population has grown several times. A mantra is a prayer-spell, which is a special magical set of syllables. Tibetans believe that constant repetition - and, if possible, inscription - of mantras can release the energy hidden in them. The most famous mantra “Om mani padme hum” has become a kind of symbol of faith in Lamaism.

The sign "om" is an ancient Indian invocation of the Supreme Being. "Mani" means "diamond" in Sanskrit. gem", "padme" - "in the lotus", and "hum" - the call of power. The symbolism of these simple words truly huge. The lotus is associated primarily with depth - it reaches out to the light from the depths of the water in order to bloom on the surface as a beautiful flower.

An opening flower symbolizes the transition from the invisible world to the visible world, and mani is a diamond that collects enormous energy and fills the lotus kingdom with it. A stupa (Sanskrit “peak, hill”) is a Buddhist religious building, standing alone or as part of a temple complex and designed to store relics, Buddha figurines and sacred texts.

Pilgrims who come to worship holy places rotate prayer wheels. In some temples, the diameter of such drums reaches 2 meters, and they can only be spun with the efforts of several people.

Corporate events Moscow, fatal on the website http://nika-art.ru.

The result was a whole essay about Tibet, which is popularly called Brother - and here is another excellent video about Tibet:

Introduction

Tibet is the main source of the great rivers of Asia. Tibet has high mountains, as well as the most extensive and highest plateau in the world, ancient forests and many deep valleys untouched by human activity.

Tibet's traditional economic and religious value system has led to the development of environmental stewardship practices. According to the Buddhist teachings on the right way of life followed by Tibetans, "moderation" is important, avoiding excessive consumption and excessive exploitation natural resources, because it is believed to cause harm to living beings and their ecology. Already in 1642, the Fifth Dalai Lama issued the “Decree on the Protection of Animals and Nature.” Since then, such decrees have been issued annually.

With the colonization of Tibet by communist China, the traditional Tibetan system of protection environment was destroyed, which led to the destruction of nature by man on a terrifying scale. This is especially evident in the state of pastures, arable lands, forests, water and animal life.

Pastures, fields and agricultural policy in China

70% of Tibet's territory is grassland. They are the basis of the country's agricultural economy, in which livestock farming plays a leading role. The total number of livestock is 70 million heads per one million pastoralists.

Over the centuries, Tibetan nomads have become well-adapted to working on the shifting mountain pastures. The Tibetans have developed a certain culture of cattle breeding: constant recording of the use of pastures, responsibility for their environmental safety, systematic movement of herds of yaks, sheep, and goats.

Over the past four decades, many pastures have ceased to exist. The transfer of such lands for use to Chinese settlers led to significant desertification of the lands, turning them into unsuitable for Agriculture territories. Particularly large desertification of pastures occurred in Amdo.

The situation was further worsened by the enclosure of pastures, which further restricted Tibetan pastoralists in space and prevented them from roaming with their herds from place to place, as they had previously done. In the Maghu region of Amdo region alone, one third of all land with an area of more than ten thousand square kilometers was fenced off for herds of horses, herds of sheep and cattle owned by Chinese army. And at the same time, the best pastures in the Ngapa, Golok and Qinghai regions were provided to the Chinese. The main arable lands of the Tibetans are the river valleys in Kham, the Tsangpo valley in U-Tsang, and the Machhu valley in Amdo. Main grain crop, which is grown by the Tibetans - barley, additional - grain and legumes. The traditional agricultural culture of the Tibetans includes: the use of organic fertilizers, crop rotation, mixed planting, and resting land under fallow, which is necessary to preserve lands that are part of sensitive mountain ecosystems. The average grain yield in U-Tsang is two thousand kilograms per hectare and even higher in the fertile valleys of Amdo and Kham. This exceeds the yield in countries with similar climatic conditions. For example, in Russia the average grain yield is 1,700 kg per hectare, and in Canada - 1,800.

Maintaining an ever-increasing number of Chinese military, civilian personnel, settlers, and agricultural exports has led to the expansion of cultivated land through the use of mountain slopes and marginal soils, to an increase in the area under wheat (which the Chinese prefer to Tibetan barley), to the use of hybrid seeds, pesticides and chemical fertilizers. Diseases constantly attacked new varieties of wheat, and in 1979 the entire wheat crop was destroyed. Before the Chinese began migrating to Tibet in the millions, there was never a need for a significant increase in agricultural production.

Forests and their felling

In 1949, Tibet's ancient forests covered 221,800 km2. By 1985, almost half of this remained - 134 thousand km2. Most forests grow on the slopes of the mountains, in the river valleys of the southern, lowest part of Tibet. The main types of forest are tropical and subtropical coniferous forests with spruce, fir, pine, larch, cypress; Birch and oak are found mixed with the main forest. The trees grow at altitudes of up to 3800 meters in the humid southern region and up to 4300 meters in the semi-dry northern region. Tibetan forests consist primarily of old trees over 200 years old. The forest density is 242 m3 per hectare, although in U-Tsang the density of old forests reached 2300 m3 per hectare. This is the highest density for conifers.

The emergence of roads in remote parts of Tibet has led to increased deforestation. It should be noted that the roads are built either by the PLA or with the help of engineering teams from the Chinese Ministry of Forestry, and the cost of their construction is considered as expenses for the “development” of Tibet. As a result, ancient forests became accessible. The main method of timber extraction is simple felling, which has resulted in significant denudation of hillsides. The volume of logging before 1985 amounted to 2 million 442 thousand m2 or 40% of the total forest volume in 1949, worth 54 billion US dollars.

Timber development is the main area of employment for the population in Tibet today: in the Kongpo Tara region alone, more than 20 thousand Chinese soldiers and prisoners were employed in felling and transporting timber. In 1949, in the Ngapa region of Amdo, 2.2 million hectares of land were occupied by forest. A forest resources amounted to 340 million m3. In 1980, the forest area decreased to 1.17 million km2 with a resource volume of 180 million m3. At the same time, until 1985, China extracted 6.44 million m3 of timber in the Kanlho Tibetan Autonomous Region. If these timbers, with a diameter of 30 cm and a length of three meters, are laid out in one line, then you can go around twice Earth.
Further devastation and destruction of the ecology of the Tibetan plateau, a unique place on earth, continues.

Natural and artificial reforestation is on a small scale due to the characteristics of the region’s topography, land and humidity, as well as high temperatures significant changes during the day and high temperatures on the soil surface. In such environmental conditions, the destructive consequences of clear-cutting forests are irreparable.

Water resources and river energy

Tibet is the main watershed of Asia and the source of its main rivers. The main part of Tibet's rivers is stable. As a rule, they flow from underground sources or are collected from glaciers. Most rivers neighboring countries depend on the amount of precipitation in different times of the year.
90% of the length of rivers originating in Tibet is used outside Tibet, and less than 1% of the total length of rivers can be used within Tibet. Today, the rivers of Tibet have the highest sediment levels. Machhu (Huanghe or Yellow River), Tsangpo (Brahmaputra), Drighu (Yangtze) and Senge Khabab (Indus) are the five siltiest rivers in the world. The total area irrigated by these rivers, if we take the area from the Machhu basin in the east to the Senge Khabab basin in the west, accounts for 47% of the world's population. There are two thousand lakes in Tibet. Some of them are considered sacred or occupy a special place in the life of the people. Their total area is 35 thousand km2.

The steep slopes and powerful flows of Tibetan rivers have a potential operational energy of 250 thousand megawatts. The Tara rivers alone have 200 thousand megawatts of potential energy.

Tibet has the second largest potential solar energy in the world after the Sahara Desert. The average annual figure is 200 kilocalories per centimeter of surface. The geothermal resources of Tibetan soil are also significant. Despite the presence of such significant potential from small environmentally friendly sources, the Chinese have built huge dams, such as Longyang Si, and continue to build them, for example, the Yamdrok Yutso hydroelectric station.

Many of these projects are designed to harness the hydro potential of Tibetan rivers to provide energy and other benefits to industry and the Chinese population in Tibet and China itself. But the environmental, cultural and human tribute for these projects will be taken from the Tibetans. While Tibetans are being driven from their lands and their homes, tens of thousands of Chinese workers are coming from China to build and operate these power plants. The Tibetans do not need these dams; they did not ask for them to be built. Take, for example, the construction of a hydroelectric station in Yamdrok Yutso. The Chinese said that this construction would bring great benefits to the Tibetans. The Tibetans and their leaders, the late Panchen Lama and Ngapo Ngawang Jigme, opposed and delayed construction for several years. However, the Chinese began construction anyway, and today 1,500 PLA soldiers guard the construction and do not allow civilians to go near it.

Minerals and Mining

According to official Chinese sources, Tibet has deposits of 126 minerals, possessing a significant portion of the world's reserves of lithium, chromium, copper, borax and iron. The oil fields in Amdo produce more than one million tons of crude oil per year.

The network of roads and communications built by the Chinese in Tibet reflects the structure of the timber and mineral reserves that are indiscriminately mined at the behest of the Chinese government. With seven of China's own fifteen major minerals set to be mined within this decade, and major non-iron mineral reserves effectively already depleted, the rate of mineral extraction in Tibet is increasing significantly. It is estimated that China plans to carry out its major mining operations in Tibet by the end of this century. Where minerals are mined, nothing is done to protect the environment. Especially where the soil is unstable, the lack of environmental protective measures results in destabilization of the landscape, destruction of the fertile layer, and danger to human health and life.

Animal world

Many animals and birds have disappeared due to the destruction of their habitats, as well as due to the sports passion of hunters and due to the revival of illegal trade wild animals and birds. There is ample evidence of Chinese soldiers using machine guns to shoot herds of wild yaks and donkeys for sport.

The unrestricted destruction of wild animals continues today. Advertisements for rare animal hunting "tours" for wealthy foreigners are regularly published in Chinese media. mass media. For example, “hunting tours” are offered for wealthy sportsmen from the USA and Europe. These “hunters” can kill such rare animals as the Tibetan antelope (Pantholops hodgsoni), the Argal sheep (Ovis ammon hodgsoni), species that should obviously be protected by the state. Hunting for a Tibetan antelope costs 35 thousand US dollars, for an Argali sheep - 23 thousand, for a white-lipped fallow deer (Cervus albirostris) - 13 thousand, for a blue sheep (Pseudois nayaur) - 7900, for a red fallow deer (Cerrus elaphus) - 3500. Such " tourism" will lead to the irreversible loss of many species of Tibetan animals before they are discovered and studied. In addition, this poses an obvious threat to the conservation of animal species with great importance for the culture of Tibet and enormous value for civilization.

The White Paper acknowledges that a large number of animals are on the "brink of extinction". At the same time, the Red List rare species Animals" of 1990 by the International Union for Conservation of Nature contains thirty species of animals living in Tibet.

Measures to preserve the fauna of Tibet, excluding areas that became part of the Chinese provinces, were taken long after similar measures were introduced in China itself. It was said that the areas that came under state protection in 1991 cover a total of 310 thousand km2, which is 12% of the territory of Tibet. The effectiveness of the protection cannot be determined due to the strictly limited access to these areas, as well as the secrecy regarding the actual data.

Nuclear and toxic waste

According to the Chinese government, there are approximately 90 nuclear warheads. And according to the "Ninth Academy" - the Chinese Northwestern Academy of Development and Creation nuclear weapons, located in the northeastern part of Tibet - Amdo, the Tibetan plateau is polluted by an unknown amount radioactive waste.

According to a report prepared by the International Movement for the Defense of Tibet, a Washington-based organization: "Waste disposal was carried out using extremely hazardous methods. Initially, it was buried in unmarked folds of the terrain... The nature and quantity of radioactive waste produced at the Ninth Academy is still are not known... In the 60s and 70s, nuclear waste from technological processes was disposed of carelessly and haphazardly. The waste generated at the Academy comes in various forms: liquid, solid and gaseous substances. Liquid and solid waste must be located in nearby lands and waters."

Official statements from China have confirmed that Tibet has the largest uranium reserves in the world. There is evidence that uranium is processed in Tibet and that deaths among local residents as a result of drinking radioactive water located near a uranium mine.

Local residents also spoke of the birth of deformed children and animals. Because Amdo's groundwater flow is now driven by natural flow rates and there is very little usable water available (one report estimates the groundwater supply to be between 340 million and four billion cubic feet - He Bochuan, pp.39), radioactive contamination this water is of grave concern. Since 1976, uranium has also been mined and processed in the Thevo and Dzorge areas of Kham.
In 1991, Greenpeace revealed plans to transport toxic urban waste from the United States to China to be used as "fertilizer" in Tibet. Use of such toxic waste how fertilizer in the US itself led to outbreaks of disease.

Conclusion

Complex ecological problems Tibet cannot be reduced to external changes, such as turning patches of land into national reserves or making laws for citizens when the real environmental culprit is the government itself. The political will of the Chinese leadership is needed to return to the Tibetans the right to use nature themselves as they did before, based on their traditional and conservative customs.

According to the Dalai Lama's proposal, the whole of Tibet should be turned into a zone of peace in which man and nature can coexist harmoniously. As the Dalai Lama said, such a Tibet should become a completely demilitarized country, with a democratic form of government and an economic system that would ensure the long-term use of the country's natural resources in order to maintain good level life of the people.

Ultimately, this is of long-term interest to Tibet's neighboring countries such as India, China, Bangladesh and Pakistan, since Tibet's ecology will have an impact big influence and on their nature. Almost half of the world's population, especially the population of these countries, depends on the condition of the rivers originating in Tibet. Some of the major floods that have occurred in these countries in the past decade have been linked to silt deposits in Tibetan rivers due to deforestation. The destructive potential of these rivers increases every year as China continues to clear forests and mine uranium on the Roof of the World.

China admits there is "pollution in some parts of the rivers." Since river flows do not respect political boundaries, Tibet's neighbors have a reasonable basis to find out which of their rivers are polluted, how much and by what. If you don't do it today decisive action and the threat is not stopped, then the rivers of Tibet, which gave joy and life, will one day bring grief and death.

And the boundless Tibet stretched around. This is a hilly plateau, elevated at 4500-5500 meters, measuring more than Western Europe and bounded by the highest mountains in the world, it seemed as if specially created in the event of the Great Flood in the form of an “Eternal Continent”. Here it was possible to escape from the wave that was approaching and sweeping away everything in its path, but survival was problematic.

Sparse grass covered the ground, but at an altitude of more than 5,000 meters it disappeared. The blades of grass grew at a distance of 20-40 cm DR5T from each other; It was surprising that such a large animal as the yak could feed itself here. But the Great Creator provided for this possibility.

And on parts of the plateau located above 5000 meters, only rusty moss and stones could be seen.

Beautiful mountain peaks could be seen anywhere and everywhere in Tibet. They seemed very small, but we knew that their absolute height was 6000-7000 meters above sea level. Willy-nilly, I peered into the details of each of these Tibetan peaks, trying to see people there - the words of Nicholas Roerich that sometimes people see on the inaccessible Tibetan peaks strange people, who knows how they got there, did not give me peace. I remembered the stories of the Himalayan yogis about the supermen of Shambhala and knew that they lived right here, in Tibet. But I didn’t manage to see any strange people; It only seemed a few times.

Hilly areas gave way to completely flat areas. The fevered imagination immediately pictured an airport here, where planes could land and bring people so that they could worship the citadel of humanity on Earth - Mount Kailash. Our main earthly Motherland - the “Eternal Continent” - deserved it. But I knew that at such a height planes could not land and take off - the air was too thin.

We liked to stop on such flat areas to have a snack. Something gentle wafted from this land, and we, sitting on the ground, gently stroked and patted it - the word “citadel” embedded in the subconscious influenced us through the millennia. The caretaker Sergei Anatolyevich Seliverstov took out chocolate, nuts, raisins, cookies, water from the food bag, but he didn’t want to eat. We drank water, but hardly shoved food into our mouths. We latently understood that we did not want to live normally here, we wanted... to survive, as our distant - Distant ancestors did.

The further we moved to the northwest, the more sand became. Soon beautiful dunes appeared. We ran out of the car and, like children, threw sand at each other. And then the sand began to show its “charms”. First of all, these were dust storms, which were accompanied by thunderstorms without rain. Such storms not only pinned a person to the ground and covered him with sand, but also stopped the car.

Probably, Tibetan Babylon was covered with such dunes - I thought.

And the storms came one after another.

But the most unpleasant thing was that stones appeared in the nose, or, as they say, stone burrs. The fact is that due to the influence of high altitude, ichor was released from the nasal mucosa, onto which fine sand stuck, which gradually turned to stone. It was a real punishment to pull out these stone bugs that clogged my entire nose. In addition, after removing the intranasal stone, there was blood, to which sand, which tends to harden, again adhered.

Rafael Yusupov most spent time in the area of the dunes wearing a special gauze mask, frightening not only the Tibetans with his appearance, but also us. He was so used to wearing a mask that he even smoked through it. True, he picked stone bugs out of his nose no less often than we did.

He, Rafael Yusupov, constantly taught us to breathe in high altitude conditions. When we went to bed, we had a fear of suffocation, which is why we breathed heavily all night, afraid to fall asleep.

A sufficient amount of carbon dioxide must accumulate in the blood so that it irritates the respiratory center and transfers the act of breathing to a reflexive-unconscious version. And you, fools, with your strained conscious breathing, disrupt the reflex function of the respiratory center. You have to endure until you suffocate,” he lectured us.

Read: Asia

Tibet: physical geography, nature, people

Tibet is the largest, highest and youngest mountain plateau in the world. Therefore, Tibet is called the “roof of the world” and the “third pole”.

Geographically, Tibet can be divided into three main regions - east, north and south. The eastern part is a forested area that occupies approximately one quarter of the territory. Virgin forests stretch throughout this part of Tibet. The northern part is open plains where nomads graze yaks and sheep. This part occupies approximately half of Tibet. The southern and central part is an agricultural region that occupies approximately one-fourth of Tibet's land area. With all the major Tibetan cities and towns such as Lhasa, Shigatse, Gyantse located in the Tsetang region, this region is considered the cultural center of Tibet. The total area of the Tibet Autonomous Region is 1,200,000 sq. km, and the population is 1,890,000 people.

The number one mountain peak on Earth is Everest, whose height is 8,848.13 meters. This is a silver peak that sends out a silvery glow year after year. Its narrowest part is hidden in the clouds. Among the 14 peaks, whose height is more than 8,000 meters, 5 are located in Tibet. Besides Everest, these are the peaks of Luozi, Makalu, Zhuoayou, Xixiabangma and Nanjiabawa, which constantly compete with Everest for superiority in height.

Many people have the wrong idea about the nature of Tibet as a constantly snow-covered land. Its old name - “land of snow” - is the name by which it is actually known throughout the world and which gives an idea of the country as a territory almost permafrost with barely perceptible signs of life. In fact, this is the case, but only in areas located in Ima, Tisi and the like. This mountain range, which covers almost the entire country, and its high peaks, up to the blue skies, are covered with snow.

In other lowland areas, in fact, it snows only a few times a year, and due to the constant brightness during the day sunlight, it’s not cold there even in the most severe winters. Tibet is so sunny that there are more than 3,000 hours of constant sun throughout the year.

Tibet is full of rivers and lakes, the densely overgrown banks of which are home to numerous swans, geese and ducks.

The Yaluzangbu River is 2,057 km long and consists of continuous turns and eddies, meandering like a silver dragon from west to east into the valleys of southern Tibet and then flowing into the Indian Ocean.

There are three rivers in eastern Tibet: the Gold Sand, the Lancang and the Nu River. They all flow from north to south, into Yunnan Province. This area is popular due to beautiful landscape Hengduan Mountains.

The holy lake or Lake Manasovara is located 30 km southeast of Mount Holi. Its area is about 400 square kilometers. Buddhists believe that the lake is a gift from Heaven. Holy water can cure all types of diseases, and if one washes oneself with it, all their worries and worries are washed away from people. Pilgrimages are even made to the lake; after walking around the lake and taking a bath alternately at the four gates, cleansing of sins occurs and the gods grant you happiness. The great monk Xuan Ruang called this lake "Holy Lake in the Western Heavens."

The area of another lake, Yangzongyong, is 638 square meters. km, and the length of the coastline is 250 km. The deepest place is at a depth of 60 meters. The lake contains a large amount of natural food for fish. It is estimated that the lake has a fish stock of approximately 300 million kg. That is why this lake is called the “fish treasure of Tibet”. Its vast expanses and shores are home to many waterfowl.

The area of Lake Namu is 1940 square meters. km, it is the second largest salt water lake. There are 3 islands rising on the surface of the island, which are an ideal habitat for all types of aquatic life.

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