Tibet 1.4 - Out of the Mekong (~ June 20th)


Not without mishap, we made our way into Tibet (AKA Xizang). My god what a country! Most of my time has been spent in a car or watching my fellow scientists collecting plants along the side of the road. My disappointment of having collected only 6 specimens in the last 5 days has been sufficiently buffeted by the sheer awe of the landscape. I don’t believe I’ve seen or experienced a more naturally beautiful part of the world, and being from California where my youth was spent traveling in the Sierras and Yosemite, I have a decent basis for comparison. Traveling along these bumpy roads I’m constantly finding myself scrambling for my camera so I can take another shot of a beautiful mountaintop, a stupa with prayer flags silhouetted against a mountain range, or a beautifully decorated Tibetan home in a lush alpine valley. I hope that my pictures convey at least a fraction of what I’ve experienced in my travels. If you ever have the opportunity to visit Tibet, see what you can do to take the overland route. You will be spending plenty of time on dusty, dirty, bumpy roads, but if you enjoy the natural beauty of mountains, Tibet will definitely fill your heart and spark your imagination. No doubt.

Part of this country’s enchantment comes from the people. They add to the beauty of this land in such a profound way. Colorful, and not just figuratively. From their homes to their dress, they seem to be drawn to bright primary colors. Seems fitting since much of the landscape is primarily dusty and grey. Almost every local stares at us, seemingly transfixed with curiosity. The ones we’ve met have been very gracious, bold and bashful all at the same time. Just today we stopped at a spot to collect some plants and there were a couple men and women there selling herbs along the side of the road. Apparently, they sell these medicinal plants to the Chinese tourists that drive by. However, they were curious enough about what my botanist colleagues were doing and eventually wanted to help. A couple women helped Sue lay out and press the specimens, while Jun sent the guys out to help find and collect different plant species. In the end she ended up giving them about 30 yuan for their help, which is about what they would make in a day by selling their plants, or so I’m told. In dollar terms that's about $5. Seems like we were taking advantage of them, but in retrospect, they were very eager to help, and apparently earned their day's wages in the 30 minutes they spent with us. I like to think that we made their day more interesting, if not better. They certainly made ours.

Though I may whine a bit about not having found my precious mushrooms, I’m probably most chagrined by the fact that were beginning to enter a part of Tibet that has the potential to be prime mushroom country. There are tons of conifers, mostly consisting of Abies and Picea, but there have been some Pinus as well as Larix around. There are also plenty of Juniperus and other evergreen shrubby plants at the higher elevations so there’s got to be ectomycorhizal fungi about.

More later....
andy....

Comments

Whitney said…
Those views are very beautiful!
August 30, 2009 at 5:11 PM
MusicalUprising said…
Andy its Justin awesome pics bro I heard that you got to do some teaching. I am happy for you getting to finally do the field work.
Love you Andy
May 7, 2010 at 10:18 PM
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