“‘Nomads’, I want to visit nomads.” Xining, the capital of the Qinghai Province in China is considered a pit-stop for backpackers traveling to Lhasa and moving further on to trek at the base of the Himalayas and then going on to visit Tibet, Nepal and India. Approximately, it takes around a week or two depending on how much time, one takes to soak in the beautiful back-packing trip. The best part about the backpackers are that they steer clear from the “touristy” routes which are highly commercialized and tend to camp out with many herders who are partly herders and partly farmers. The moment, I reached Xining, I was welcomed by a host of travelers sharing their journeys with me. I am not only amazed by the hospitality of Xining locals, but also, that is how I found my translator for my field work. Wan Ma Kan Zhou is of a Mongol-Tibetan descent from Henan County in Qinghai. good for me me that she speaks Chinese, Tibetan and some English. But with a translator app on my iPhone, we manage just fine. The past few days and the next week, we are heading to neighboring counties and villages in search of nomadic pastoralist herding communities. Traveling by local buses is also another joyous experience, meeting people of different cultures, Hans, Salars, Hui, Tibetans and Chinese.
“Ni hao, shenme minzi, Wo jiao ‘Divi’, Yindu ren”, I introduce myself with a shorter easier name. It is heartwarming to find people responding and trying their best to speak slowly to make a conversation.
Visiting the rangelands in the neighboring counties is exciting and I am looking forward to bringing back as much in terms of knowledge and experience as possible. Long stretches of varying degrees of greens spotted with grazing sheep, yaks, cows and horses, shy herder communities and rich cultures, such are the joys of this fieldwork.