原创 By Christy CHENG 程公子

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Conventionally, I will write down something at the end of each year to have a quick look through the past year, but the year 2020 was too unique to start nothing significant or important, so I would like to record this travelogue commemorating my volunteer experience in Hoh Xil from July 19th, 2020 to July 25th, 2020. If 2020 was the year when everything fell apart, I hope 2021 would be the year when beginning picking up some of the pieces, or even taking on formidable challenge of revamping our social, financial, and political institutions if you really want to see a society where everyone in it-not just a select few- can thrive.

In the beginning of the year 2020, I took it as a common Chinese lunar new year and came back to Wuhan, planning to have family reunion with my grandparents during this traditional festival. Obviously everybody knows what happened during these times now, but I, at that time closely involved and trapped in Hubei, cannot see clearly or predict what will happen in next minute. It was incredible and nightmarish that our government shut down Hubei province, especially Wuhan, as an extreme measurement to prevent the Corona Virus from further spreading into other cities. As a result, all people in this province were required compulsory home quarantine to fight against COVID-19.

That's a very long compulsory home quarantine, from end January to beginning April, 76 days in total. What I did frequently was lying in bed and thinking about the purpose of life and our creation. The purpose of our creation is obviously, to reach our utmost goals of belief, knowledge, and spirituality; to reflect on the universe and humanity, and thus prove our value as human beings. Fulfilling this idea is possible only through systematic thinking and systematic behavior. Thought will provoke action, and thereby start a “prosperous cycle”, which will produce more complex cycles, generating the heart’s spirituality and the brain's knowledge, and thereby develop ever-more complex ideas and produce larger projects. After such a prolix thinking and the so-call "systematic behavior" conducted during the home quaranteen, I really felt bored and looked forward to doing something really meaningful to life and the earth so I attended the Hoh Xil volunteer program organized by Gapper which is proved to be professional and rewarding experience advocating the truth of culture as well as creating unique stories.

Hoh Xil, which means "beautiful girl" in Mongolian, is located in the north-eastern extremity of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau and listed as the largest and highest plateau in the world. With an average elevation of 4,600 meters above sea level on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, it is one of the major headwater sources of the Yangtze River. Hoh Xil National Nature Reserve is China's largest and the world's third largest uninhabited area. Because of the high altitude and fierce weather, it is impossible for people to live there, and therefore, it is a paradise for wildlife and home to a variety species of wild animals including endangered species such as the Tibetan antelope. It also covers several migration routes of the species.

The first time I heard Hoh Xil is from the movie "Kekexili: Mountain Patrol", which was depicted by a famous Chinese Director Lu Chuan. It is an docu-drama adapted from the true story of Sonam Dargye, deputy secretary of the Country Party Committee of Zhidoi Country, Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Qinghai Province. He devoted his whole life to the ecological conservation of the Hoh Xil region, but unfortunately he died in a fight with poachers on January 18, 1994. In May 1996, PRC State Environmental Protection Administration and the Ministry of Forest granted Sonam Dargye the title of "Guardian of Environmental Protection". Meanwhile, this film also offers a concise portrait of rural Tibet from sky burials to night club brothels. It centers on the clash between righteous Tibetans who revere their environment and its creatures, and those driven by poverty or venality to despoil them. Furthermore, it stresses both the male solidarity that sustains the patrol and the difficulties their mission creates for the men’s relationship with women. The magnificent indulgence that large numbers of shots Lu allows the awestruck contemplation of the landscape impressed me deeply about the extremely cold climate and the harsh natural conditions, as well as the "forbidden zone for human life", where human beings cannot survive for very long.

Pantholops hodgsonii, also called as Tibetan antelope, is one of the most significant national protected animals in China. They're mainly distributed in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau area(Qinghai, Tibet & Xinjiang) and partially seen in Ladakh & Kashmir in India. It feeds on gramineous grasses, weeds, and lichens, and lives in a large groups. Females and males are almost completely separated in the migratory seasons. Among them, the female migrate for a long distance, and the male only migrate in the wintering ground for a short distance. 

Degradation of common property resources pulls labor away from direct productive activities towards gathering, simply collecting non-wood and minor forest products, and probably diminishes opportunities for deriving income from this resource. Linkages with food security can also be less direct. Shortage of biomass may result in a transition to lower-nutrition foods that require less fuel for cooking. In addition, recurrent drought or natural calamities also directly result in progressive loss of food security prospects. In their quest for food security, the rural poor have sometimes little choice but to overuse the limited resources available to them. The resulting environmental degradation imposes further constrains on their livelihood in what has been called a “downward spiral” or “vicious circle”. They are often forced to make trade-offs between immediate household food requirements and environmental sustainability both in production and consumption. 

Their negligible man-made capital assets, ill-defined or non-existent property rights, limited assess to financial services and other markets, inadequate safety nets in time of stress and disaster, and lack of participation in decision-making can result in their adopting “ short time horizon” which favor immediate imperatives over longer-term objectives. This can result in coping strategies that rely on the drawing down of the capital available to them, mainly in the form of natural resources. It also makes them more vulnerable to environmental degradation, including degradation wrought by others than the poor themselves. The poor may be both agents and victims of environmental degradation, especially in marginal areas, where the resource base is ill-suited its agriculture. 

But it cannot be assumed that the poor have an intrinsic of environmental propensity to degrade environmental resources. On the contrary, many poor traditional communities demonstrate an admirable environmental ethic and have developed complex resource management regimes. There is little evidence that the rural poor, when offered an appropriate environment including secure tenure and access to markets, pursue resource degrading strategies. Thus, while poverty may be underlying cause of environmental degradation, it is more accurately seen as a proximate cause influence by a complex of policy and institutional factors. The very same processes that lead to and perpetuate poverty constrain the poor in their decision-making with regard to natural resource management. Affluence and poverty affect the environment in different ways: poverty eradication would not erase environmental degradation but change the nature of environmental problems facing society. Anyway, there is still a long way to go.

During this journey, I had an pilgrimage and sightseeing in Kumbum Monastery, one of the six major monasteries of Gelug School of Tibetan Buddhist. It is the birth place of Lama Tsongkhapa who is the founder of the Gelug School, a solemn Buddhist shrine and dojo. I spent a peaceful time in this precious national culture heritage, feeling its profound Buddhist culture, unique shaped Buddha statues, splendid architecture style, as well as the Buddhism study atmosphere. Before, I've always been thinking about a question are all of life’s hardships worth enduring? The answer depends on what our goal is in living, in fact, understanding life’s purpose is a slow and absorbing process. We sense its mystery while reflecting upon our existence and humanity. Therefore, our concept of life evolves gradually throughout our lives. 

Carrying out such a process calls for strong belief, consciousness, and understanding. People with this characteristics are able to realize and analyze the unreflective lifestyle of others. Such people think, do what they believe to be right, and then reflect upon their behavior, thereby continually deepening their thoughts and acquiring new ideas. They believe that only those who reflect deeply and productive, and that the pain and suffering they endure makes their belief stronger and more acceptable.

We live a life of reflection by observing our souls within and the world without every day, sometimes reading it like a book or embroidering our minds with the wisdom acquired. I believe that the universe was created to be read and understood, and that our purpose of lives must be nothing but that. On its own, existence of our lives is the very bounty that leads us to a prosperous path of bounties. Given this, we should appreciate its value. Since we were created, as was whole universe bounties, we must use this gifts and benefit from them.

To reach this goal, we must use our willpower, a voice heard by the universe around us, moreover develop our abilities and skills to furthest extent, thus proving our self to be willful beings. Our duty is to reflect upon our place in life, our responsibilities, and our relationships with this vast universe. We are supposed to use our inner thoughts to explore the hidden side of the surrounding world. As we do so, we will begin to feel deeper sense of ourselves, see things differently, witness that events are not what they seem, and realize that events are trying to communicate something to us. I believe that this should be life’s real purpose. We are the most important living creation in this universe. In fact, we are more like its soul and essence from which we may realize and fulfill the purpose of our creation. Our duty is to hunt for insights and divine joys in our hearts and souls, for only this way of life can move us beyond the frustrating endeavors of a total materialistic and painful life.

What makes the painful life worth living is the joy we feel while moving towards the path and receiving the gifts we are given. Those who walk this path are constantly delighted with various insights. They run enthusiastically towards their final goal like a river flowing to the sea. We don’t believe that happiness comes from temporary outer sources. True happiness comes from within. Our inner world is a realm of divine insights, and our consciousness is a follower of these insights. As we beckon and wait all our lives for the slightest glimpse, our souls sing in utter pleasure.