Waiting for rainy season
July 11, 2009[More thoughts and notes from Tibet]
Most pilgrims traveling to Kailash from the subcontinent leave Nyalam after a few days of acclimatization and head for higher ground. They cross the 5100 m Tong La pass and then leave the Friendship Highway to sneak off-road on a shortcut that goes due west towards Saga, the next major town a day’s drive away. The drive goes through a range of landscapes — open grassland with vistas of Shishapangma mountain, dry desert-like, rolling hills, and it skirts one whole side of a beautiful lake called Pekud Tsho (pad khud mtsho in Tibetan script). This lake is a popular stop-and-photo spot for most groups (with the requisite detritus included at the photo-op spot). A tiny compound with a tea house supports passers-through and is manned by a few local ladies and older men. It is usually a rather poor area, and especially at the time of year that my group passed through: after winter, but before the rains. The summer rains, the bits of monsoon that make it over the high mountains, are essential for the health of nomads and farmers on the Plateau. High grasses can’t grow much, and are low on nutrients, until the rains come. This means that animals continue to graze the moister winter and spring pastures, instead of giving them a rest by heading for higher, summer grounds. What does get planted in these areas can’t start growing until the rains come, and the season is so short that late rains are often ineffectual. Steady rain is needed also — too much just causes swollen rivers, and small showers dry quickly without really soaking the soil. Rain was late this year, but it was starting to arrive by the end of June. The grazing areas are huge expanses, high mountain ridges and wide plains, that turn emerald green and fluorescent green when the sprinkles did come. And the clouds rolling in and out made for spectacular light.
