Nomads Of Western Tibet

or sixteen months between June 1986 and June 1988, Melvyn Goldstein and Cynthia Beall lived in Tibet studying a community of roughly three hundred Tibetan nomads at altitudes above 16,000 feet in yak-hair tents, weathering temperatures which reached thirty to forty degrees below zero, drinking butter-salt tea, and eating 'tsampa'...popped and ground barley ...and mutton.This copiously illustrated book is a fascinating account of these remarkable people, of their traditional way of life and their continuing struggle for cultural survival. In a world where indigenous peoples and their environments are vanishing at alarming rates, the survival of this way of life represents an unexpected and heartening victory for humanity.As the first Western scientists allowed to conduct in-depth research in Tibet in decades, Goldstein and Beall were given the opportunity to study first-hand and long-term the traditional lifestyles of the nomad's of Pala, a remote district on Tibet's western plateau known as the Changtang.The authors accompanied the nomads on their daily trips between the homebase encampment and the grazing grounds, on seasonal migrations to distant pastures and satellite camps, on yearly hay-cutting and salt-collecting events, and on hunting excursions that included the use of matchlock rifles and 'blue-sheep; dogs. The authors also participated in the milking, shearing, and butchering of the pastoralists' sheep and goats.The census and grazing-enclosure data the authors collected credit the nomads' traditional pastoral system with maintaining the sensitive ecological balance necessary to guarantee its perpetuation for countless centuries. Finally, the authors relate the radical changes wrought by the Cultural Revolution on the nomads' lives.