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Show 664 The National Geographic Magazine The surface stands at about 10,000 feet and covers about 1,600 square miles. The waters are too salty to drink. It is the highest salt lake in the world. To the nomads who graze their herds on the grassy shores and into mountain valleys, Koko Nor is a mysterious body of water, whose origin is explained in fabulous myths. They hold a superstition that boats will not float on its waters. Violent storms sometimes sweep over its otherwise placid surface. In winter it is frozen over, and only then can hermit priests who live on its only inhabited island leave their hermitage for supplies. Koko Nor, with white sand dunes along its northern shore and set in a valley carpeted with wild flowers in vivid colors, reflected in its azure depths the lofty brooding mountains in green and crowned with everlasting snows. Grazing Grounds for Tibetan Nomads Here are the summer grazing grounds of many Tibetan nomads and the land of the hardy and active yak. Commerce is carried out of Tibet into bordering towns on these domesticated pack animals. Herds of yak, with packsaddles, were seen grazing along the road south of Koko Nor. Here is the best dude-ranch country I have ever seen. All outdoors seems air-conditioned. Here is an ideal summer resort to escape the steaming heat of Chinese cities of the coastal plains when plane and automobile travel is available after the war. It will also be a scenic region for tourists from other nations. There is no erosion of the soil in these Tibetan grasslands except for sand dunes north of the lake. Surface control is complete. We must credit the Tibetans for good management of their grasslands, so ideal for summer grazing.* But winters are too severe in this high region for winter grazing. The nomads must find winter feed for their herds at lower elevations in sheltered river valleys. This they have done from time immemorial. We visited a Tibetan encampment with its black yak-hair tents like black blisters on the green landscape. Proper etiquette in approaching a Tibetan tent is important, for around all tents man-killing dogs are staked in a circle. When the dogs begin to bark, the courteous thing to do is to stop. On our visit, a woman came down to see us, for the menfolks were out with the flocks of sheep and yak. Through our interpreter, the Governor's representative made known' our wishes to visit their tent. We were invited to go along and were escorted through the line of barking dogs. Trouble threatens in this region; another Cain and Abel tragedy is beginning. The Chinese farmers are encroaching on the winter feeding grounds of the nomads down in the warmer valleys at lower elevation. During the Mohammedan rebellion of the last century, most of the farmers were driven out of these river valleys of the upper Yellow River. Now, however, they are beginning to come back again. They are plowing up the grass. When the nomads come out of their mountain summer grazing lands, they have no suitable places to graze their herds during the long winters. I was told that 50 per cent of the herds died the winter before because of starvation and disease. Yet in all this region I did not see a single stack of hay. The Yellow River Valley about Kungho is wonderfully adapted to growing irrigated alfalfa in great fields for winter pasture and hay. Stacks of alfalfa grown here would feed and fatten herds for the market in Lanchow and, in time, central China. Problems of the grazing lands are thus far given little attention in China. We in the United States solved this problem in our West by making the two economies supplement each other, rather than allow them to continue antagonistic. A coordinated plan for this vast Tibetan grassland region would provide the farmers with quantities of cheap meat in exchange for stacks of hay for winter fodder. Back in Chungking Our survey, involving more than 6,000 miles of travel in northwest China and detailed studies in many localities, as well as practical demonstrations for farmers to see, was completed. We returned to Chungking to show officials colored slides of the country we had seen and explained land-use problems of these regions and presented our preliminary report. The task of working out a lasting adjustment of our respective peoples to their land resources is vital, but complex. We may well collaborate with the farmers of forty centuries and they with us in this all-important task. Our common enemy, accelerated erosion of our land heritage, asks no quarter and we can give him none. Victory in this unending war calls for application of the best in experience and science and interest and collaboration of conservationists the world around.f , „* Se^., ! 'ExPlormK a Grass Wonderland of Wild West China," by Ray G. Johnson, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE, June, 1944. t For additional articles on China, see Cumulative Index to the NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE |