Amdo

Harvesting

Two married women tie the wheat to their mule. They are very exhausted from cutting their crops all day. In my area it is socially unacceptable for men to cut crops. As a result, women’s burden in my hometown is heavier compared with other places.

Photographer: 
Pagmotso

A Ngawa Tibetan Nomad Childhood

Abstract: 
"I was born in a pastoral family in the autumn, in Rongrima Village, Hongyuan County, Ngawa Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, PR China. When I was a child, my family lived in a 'four-column' wood house made using four poles placed in a rectangular configuration in the center of the home. Four shorter poles were behind the central columns. Four-pillar wood houses had flat roofs with several compartments, and had a skylight in the center that allowed light into the home and allowed smoke from the hearth to escape. We lived in our wood house from November to April. As flowers began to bud and calves were born, we took out our black yak-hair tent and pitched it, which announced that we would soon start moving to our camp on the open grassland where we would stay through spring, summer, and autumn."

Passions and Colored Sleeves: Mongghul Lives in Eastern Tibet

Abstract: 
This genre-bending work takes the novel down paths not often walked for it documents a dying culture by a couple of this cultural group, provides elaborate footnotes sure to interest the anthropologically-minded reader, has portions that are biography and history, and more. Its richly detailed description of folk and religious practices, family interactions and breadth in the number and types of scenes and vignettes provide valuable records of what was, or might have been.             The story is set in China's largest province – Qinghai – best known for Koknor, the great inland lake and, more recently, the devastating earthquake in Yushu. Within this vast land is situated Huzhu Mongghul (Tu) Autonomous County, where the characters in this novel dwell. Noted by nineteenth century Western explorers, the Tu are one of China's fifty-six official nationalities. Speaking a language with close links to Mongolian, the Mongghul are much influenced by Tibetan religion, while retaining, as this novel details, many complex folk religious beliefs and practices.             The novel begins a year before the advent of the twentieth century and ends a century later, spanning a time when Mongghul culture was vigorous to a time when much had been lost.             Women figure prominently in this work. The main character, Xjirimu, refuses to discipline one of her sons, who so brutally abuses his wife that she dies while fleeing the home. The dead woman's family exacts revenge that inspires Xjirimu to lead her ruined family to a new home in a wild, dangerous land where a wolf kills an infant left unattended as Xjirimu weeds nearby with her daughters.             Xjirimu is to repeat history. Her sole surviving son brings a wife, Zhualimaxji, into a home ruled by Xjirimu and her three daughters, each of whom have undergone a ritual that allows them to see men and have children while remaining unmarried. It is not the son, this time, who abuses his wife, but Xjirimu and the sisters. The wife flees. Where she goes and her ensuing life is vividly described by the writers, who visited her. The runaway wife describes how much she missed her homeland to which she never returned: "I climbed the mountain behind my village and gazed at my ancestral home. I wanted to fly there." She died a month after the authors' visit.             Limusishiden and Jugui have accomplished something astonishing for they have taken us into a culture that only locals could write about so incisively, with such authority and compassion, and so unapologetically. In so doing they have created an enduring record of this vanishing culture. 

Stag rig Tibetan Village: Hair Changing and Marriage

Abstract: 
Marriage in Stag rig Village, Shar lung Township, Khri ka County, Mtsho lho Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Mtsho sngon Province, China is described in the context of the hair dressing ritual, rules of exclusion and inclusion, the process of marriage (spouse selection, free choice marriage, arranged marriage), engagement, drinking contract liquor, bride wealth discussion, choosing a date for the wedding ritual, wedding preparations at the bride and groom's homes, the wedding ritual and banquet, marrying a groom into the bride's home, divorce, and the atmosphere surrounding the bride's arrival. 

Solar Cooker Project

My aunty cooks using straw and dried grass as fuel. If she had a solar cooker then she could use less straw and grass and save it instead for her household's livestock. 

Photographer: 
Tsomo Jyi

Solar Cooker Project

The villagers in Gongma Village have a meeting to vote who are the poorest families. These families will then receive solar cookers through my solar cooker project.

Photographer: 
Tsomo Jyi

Solar Cooker Project

A resident’s house in Gongma Village. This household will receive a solar cooker. 

Photographer: 
Tsomo Jyi

Desertification

Desertification in Xinghai County has become a serious environmental issue in the last two decades.

Photographer: 
Tsomo Jyi