三江源生态环境保护协会

In Tibetan mtsho khri means thousand lakes, but actually there are no thousand lakes in the village, the real ‘thousand lakes’ are in Yege village.When the people’s commune was set up in Yege village, villagers of mtsho khri had lived there thus they kept the name of ‘thousand lakes’

Mtsho khri is located in the key conservation area of Changjiang River source region 3 Great Rivers sources Tongtianhe River Source State wild animals protection zone.Total area of mtsho khri is about 2124.5 sq. miles.Its average altitude is 4200 metres above sea level, the highest altitude at 4800 metres.It is one of the pure pastoral areas at the highest altitude of the country. It is one of the administrative territories of Qinghai Province Yushu Prefecture Tibetan Auto Region Qumalai county Qumahe village.At 30th Dec 2006, according to statistical information, there were 3 teams, 167 families & 723 persons in the village. Occasional immigrants before 2005 were 25 families & 85 persons; policy immigrants after 2005 were 59 families & 243 persons.

Various wild animals inhabit in mtsho khri.Among them are State grade I protected Tibetan wild donkeys, Tibetan antelope, wild yaks, white-lipped deer, black-necked crane, gold vulture & snow leopard etc. State grade II protected bharal, brown bear & saker falcon etc. There are large amounts of salt, coal & bronze etc in the region.

Historically, mtsho khri villagers are grassland nomadic tribes, but hunting is also their main source of income. They used to live in the hinterland of Qinghai-Tibet plateau.The mtsho khri villagers now protect wild lives on their own accord & have become the model for maintaining harmonious relationship between wild lives & human.

In Dec 2004, under the assistance of Snowland Great Rivers Environmental Protection Association, a local NGO was formed voluntarily by the herdsmen----Friends Of Wild yak Organization ( FWO). It has 45 members at present. The Organization has become an important local environmental protection force, playing a very important role in the environmental protection of the 3 Great Rivers sources Tongtianhe River source key protection area for wild animals.

On the basis of inheriting traditional natives’ ecological culture, we set up the Village Ecological Culture festival (“Guozan”in Tibetan tradition) as a platform to conduct green fashion show, horse racing & setting free life beings to promote prohibition of killing (of wild animals); talks about mountains & rivers & local ethnic sports games to explain religious ecological views; to conduct community supervision contests, to select the most compassionate villagers, to show promotional films on endangered animals; various activities that are beneficial to the environment.We embody education in amusements, self- education & demonstrate to the main stream society the charisma of community ecological culture.

Aims:Fosters the villagers’ positive attitude, their sense of belongings & their own initiatives to participate in conserving the natural environment.

Promotes environmental friendly living style; encourages the villagers to inherit fine traditional ecological ideas; demonstrates to the mainstream society the charisma of community ecological culture & establish a harmonious, advanced & happy communist new agricultural village through the festival.

The content of the festival is hardworking, plain, simple, true & joyful.To enrich the herdsmen’s life while not adding to their burden, to highlight the preservation theme with activities the herdsmen love, demonstrate the firm belief, continuous efforts & outstanding contribution of people in the Qinghai-Tibet plateau hinterland have had towards environmental protection.

The traditional Tibetan ecological culture shows that Tibetans believe in Buddhism from generations to generations & take the ‘ten good deeds’ as their highest lifelong practice target.To free all beings from sufferings, to enable them to get the truths of perfect life, the Tibetan ancestors have laid down strict precepts.The Tibetans inherit the tradition of treating all beings equal, harmony & liberation, thus mtsho khri wins the name of pure land. All the villagers of mtsho khri believe in Tibetan Buddhism, the place is with pronounced religious ecological culture atmosphere.The religious ecological culture promotes the belief that “all beings are equal”, which requests humans to accept & embrace all the beings in the world with compassion & great love.The beliefs of “all beings are equal”, “ all beings are our mother”, “re-incarnation into the 6 realms” & “holly mountains & sacred lakes” are deeply rooted in every herdsman’s mind & affect their behaviors.In the culture festival, we borrowed the most representative rituals of paying tribute to the mountains & purifying the lakes to demonstrate the views of religious ecological culture. We also let the local people & foreign guests participate in the whole ceremony to experience the special native amorous feelings.The rituals included traditional cultural activities such as setting free life beings, paying tribute to the mountains, purify the lakes, turning around mountain & singing.

Nomadic ecological culture activities

Mtsho khri is a pure pastoral village, the villagers are nomads for hundreds of years.In the consistent battles with Nature, they have gradually enriched their life & formed special nomadic culture. We have designed simple life experience that imitated nomadic life.The experience could train the participants’ surviving skills in wild lands, let them experience nomadic life & get close to the life of herdsmen & understand the happiness & sufferings of local herdsmen more deeply. In the festival, we let the local youths & foreign guests compete in nomadic games & offer the winners traditional Tibetan white Ha da.

Grassland herdsmen live in dispersed places & lead nomadic life.Their special life style & production mode give rise to special leisure cultures.The herdsmen’s sports games & entertainment can have many participants & gives great amusements.In the festival, we prepared interesting & amusing cultural, sports & entertainment activities that merged with environmental protection to enrich the festival. The activities included horse racing, cow racing, appreciating horses, licking yogurt from horseback, stone chess, throwing musk & sand bags; Tibetan style of tug-of-war & singing.

In the festival we organized exchange platforms for the guests & local herdsmen, such as drinking tea & talking with the sunset glows, campfire hot pot & making friends & alliances which provided each participant with relaxed & entertaining life experience, thus enriching their life.

Community Ecological supervision practice

animal supervision.This kind of ‘on the cow’s back’ supervision plays an undeniable role in protecting the wild animals in the Changjiang River source. We provided this ‘on the cow’s back’ supervision practice in the festival to those who love & cherish lives. Through the practice, people could reach the wild animals, could ‘talk’ to wild yaks & sing to Tibetan antelopes, could experience the harmonious atmosphere of co-existing with the wild animals.

VI. Comment on the promotion boards, select the most influential picture or phrase; photo exhibition of herdsmen’s life, select the best picture taken by the herdsmen, herdsmen’s handicraft show, let herdsmen join the “happy herdsman” competition voluntarily, ask the herdsmen to tell the reasons, feelings, & effects of being happy.Tulku bless all those come forward for the initial ceremony.