Students of the Golmud Three-river Source Area School.	Former Tanglha villagers basking in the modern convenience of their new home in Golmud.

Protecting the Three-river Source Area

Golmud City sits like an oasis in the Gobi desert, nestled comfortably at the foot of Kunlun Mountain. Within the city lies a little slice of Tibet, with bright rows of prayer flags hanging from neat houses basking in the desert sun. Newly-transplanted trees are sprouting leaves for the first time - like the Tibetan migrants now living in the area, they are thriving in their new desert environment.

It’s a far cry from Tanglha Town, some 420 kilometers away in the heart of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, in a region known as the ‘Three-river Source Area’. Sitting 4,532 meters above sea level, Tanglha is the world’s highest town, and it is here that the Yangtze, Yellow and Lancang rivers begin their long journeys to the sea, fed by melting snow from the ice-capped mountains. Despite the picturesque setting, life here is anything but romantic or easy. Much of the population lives in poverty, and the already harsh environment is deteriorating due to excessive human activity.

Gengso Namgyai's family lived a pastoral life here for generations, largely cut off from the outside world. Degradation and desertification were making life increasingly difficult, with the hundreds of hectares of grassland owned by each household barely able to sustain a few dozen cattle and a small flock of sheep. To save the area’s environment, in 2003 the state established a natural preserve in the Three-river Source Area, and Tanglha Town lay within its perimeter. So the following year, Gengso Namgyai and another 127 households sold their livestock and headed for a new tailor-made village in Golmud.

The immigration of Namgyai’s family and his fellow villagers is part of a much larger plan to protect and rebuild the eco-system of the Three-river Source Area. In January 2005, it was announced the state will shell out RMB 631 million by 2010 to move 55,700 people and 3.2 million sheep out of the region, and ban grazing on 2.87 million hectares of natural pasture. The state is pouring a huge amount of resources into the plan, not only to save the Three-river Source Area, but also to give the inhabitants a new start elsewhere.

Adjusting to City Life

In the case of the immigrants like Namgyai who settled in Golmud, each family received a courtyard of 300 square meters and a two-bedroom bungalow complete with kitchen and bathroom. They were also given fenced grazing lands in the mountains behind the city. “My son and daughter-in-law are tending 40 yaks and some sheep in the mountains, while my wife and I look after their daughter here. The kids also have easy access to school, and life is generally much better in Golmud,” said Namgyai.

Each immigrant household will receive compensation of RMB 100,000 from the government over 10 years, of which RMB 40,000 is earmarked for housing and the rest for general living expenses and agricultural production. The village has elected a villagers’ committee and a women’s federation. The local clinic has two practitioners working in shifts, and there’s a rest home for childless and infirm elders. Children in the village go to a local primary school, which is housed in a decent three-story building.

In addition to giving them access to improved infrastructure, urban life means that most of the immigrants’ homes now have modern electrical appliances such as TVs, refrigerators and telephones. Many of the villagers can now be seen clutching mobile phones. Their diet has been transformed from one dominated by beef and mutton to a more balanced mix of meat and vegetables. Showers, an inconvenient extravagance in the Tibetans’ former mountain home, are now a weekly occurrence thanks to local public bathhouses. Finally, a plot has been placed in every family’s courtyard for a greenhouse in which to raise sheep and grow vegetables.

Urban life has also meant increased educational and vocational opportunities for the former Tanglha Town inhabitants. Village cadres search for jobs for the immigrants and organize training courses. Dozens of villagers have received welder’s qualifications, and many others have gained a driver’s license, significantly enhancing their chances of employment.

It hasn’t all been smooth sailing of course, and city life has required enormous adjustments on the part of the immigrants­. Two months ago the Qinghai Tibetan Sheep Group opened a carpet factory north of the village and took on 80 women, the first in the Tibetan community to find employment as industrial workers. Totally illiterate, many of the former herders and homemakers could barely speak Mandarin or count beyond ten. Since knowing the number of warps and wefts is essential when weaving a carpet, the women found it extremely difficult adjusting to manufacturing work. Factory director and former teacher Yang Ruifang had to teach them elementary mathematics and Chinese before getting on to knitting techniques. Employing all the patience and experience she had accrued in her former teaching jobs, Yang began by writing Chinese words such as ‘hello’ and ‘today’ on the workshop walls. Math classes started with finger counting. The workers learnt slowly but with great dedication, and after a month many of them could count to 100.

Initially production was very low due to all the learning required to bring the workers to the required educational standard, but Yang believed the hard working Tibetans would develop into deft weavers. And she was right. Their first two efforts are now proudly displayed in the factory’s sample room. One depicts cattle, animals loved and revered by Tibetans, while the other depicts the snow-capped mountains and river setting where the immigrants lived for countless years. “Some customers offered big prices for them, but we didn’t sell,” says Yang. “These carpets record our history, and mark a new start in these immigrants’ lives.” While the traditional scenes speak of what the immigrants left behind, the carpets themselves speak of the Tibetans’ promising future.