At first dawn, we were already on our way.
The county seat of Pulan gradually became blurred, and the barley fields in the river valley also disappeared with the wind.
Our task today is to hurry, 1,000 kilometers of road, and to arrive at laz in the evening to rest.
We passed the beautiful Rang Cho and Ma Pang Yong Tso again, the weather was gloomy, the distant Mount Kailash was completely illuminated in the clouds, the Tibetan driver Pyinpa said that many guests came to the sacred lake of the sacred mountain, waited for several days did not see the true face of Kailash, and had to regret it.
We came this time, the most beautiful moment of the sacred mountain and the holy lake, we were able to witness it, it was really lucky.
Leaving the Ali Plateau, the altitude drops to about 4200 meters and enters the alpine pasture. The lower elevation, lush vegetation at the foot of the mountain, and the abundance of yaks ensure that herders demand meat and dairy products.
In the early morning, when all kinds of wild animals on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau are very active, we saw a lot of Tibetan wild donkeys and Tibetan hartebeest on the plateau in Pulan, and we couldn't help but want to get out of the car to shoot and crept forward.
There are about 10 Tibetan wild donkeys in this group, and 3 of them are still squatting on the grass to sleep, and a few of them are "sentry" while eating grass. Seeing us slowly approaching, the whole wild donkey group began to stir, and the crouched Tibetan wild donkeys all stood up, and seeing that we were still moving slowly, the wild donkey group also began to move slowly.
Tibetan wild donkeys come out in groups to forage for food and run fast.
I tried to get closer to the herd of wild donkeys while taking pictures. Just then, I suddenly saw a group of Tibetan wild donkeys running not far to the east, two adult wild donkeys, followed by several small wild donkeys. Not long after, I noticed something was wrong – why did the adult wild ass run so fast and constantly change direction?
I took a closer look, and the wild donkey was not followed by a small donkey at all, but 3 wolves!
The two wild donkeys eventually ran into the herd of wild donkeys we were following and photographing, only to see the donkeys running, dusting, and many adult male wild donkeys resisting the wolves by raising their hooves. After about five minutes, it may be because the wolves are small in number and cannot take advantage of fierce resistance, or it may be that they find that there are strange animals like us behind the wild donkey herd, so the wolves voluntarily abandon the attack and slowly run to the hillside.
Bianba said that the wolves mainly attack the Tibetan wild donkey or the old, weak, sick and disabled in the Tibetan hartebeest. In the face of fierce resistance from the strong male Tibetan wild donkey, the wolf himself is easily injured.
At an altitude of 4,500 meters above sea level on the Ali Plateau, you can often encounter Nohara Ling, who runs on the wilderness, and Tibetans like to call them "white butts", which exudes a kind of kindness.
Natural selection, survival of the fittest, this is the law of nature. We humans can't change the laws of nature either, and aren't the stories of our world and the everyday events on the Tibetan Plateau essentially the same?
Starting from the Mayumu Pass at an altitude of 5,211 meters, we have successively passed several mountain passes above 5,000 meters above sea level, each of which has prayer flags erected by Tibetan people. Prayer flags dance in the wind, seemingly wishing every passer-by a safe journey.
At Saga's gas station, there are long lines of all kinds of off-road vehicles, and 10 consecutive cars behind our car are full of Indian pilgrims, who have come to Kailash and Mapan Yongcuo to worship, and it is said that when they see the sacred mountain and holy lake in their hearts, they are often excited to tears.
A Tibetan father and son sat on the side of the road, enjoying their lunch. The warm bottle was filled with butter tea, and the young man was cutting the dried lamb with a knife.
It is said that every year, the Ali region receives tens of thousands of pilgrims from India and Nepal before the snow closes the mountain, and a large part of the tourism income of the sacred mountain and holy lake comes from them.
When I came, I was full of expectations, and when I went, I was calm, which was how I felt after I visited the sacred lake of the sacred mountain.
The loneliness of the shepherd is swallowed up by the boundless wasteland.
At 8:30 p.m., the sun had just set in the west. We walked out of Ali and out of the pastoral area, into Lazi County in Shigatse, where the creeks and ditches on the outskirts of the city separated large areas of golden barley, and the smell of barley in the wind indicated that this was already an agricultural area on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.