"How life is for 'The urbanised nomads' "

I came across a great website today: the Tibet Web Digest (བོད་ཀྱི་དྲ་གནས་ཕྱོགས་སྡུས༑). This website translates note worthy Tibetan language articles into English to "provide access to the vigorous intellectual and cultural activity of the Tibetan language cybersapce." I encourage you to visit this website as it contains many interesting posts, including the subject tile of my post today.

"How life is for 'The urbanised nomads' ” is a brief report on the condition of resettled Golok nomads from the Three Rivers Headwaters Nature Reserve. The writer shares data on the living condition, income level and experiences of the resettled nomads. The writer also recounts some of the interviews conducted at the relocation camp on April 14, 2007. The original Tibetan language article is currently inaccessible [At least two popular sites -- www.tibetabc.cn and www.tibettl.com -- are inaccessible right now].

If you want to read my older posts related to the topic of resettlement of nomads, see here.
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5.8 billion US$ to displace more Tibetans

I re-subscribed to TIN updates yesterday and this morning I saw their latest news digest in my inbox. The updates were full of grim news: more protests and arrests on the Tibetan Plateau. Yesterday I learned that one of my best friends is unable to enter Kham (Eastern Tibet) from Chengdu. He may have to return to North America and postpone his work related to hospital and school building projects in the region. Authorities have closed off (many parts of) Eastern Tibet to ensure "stability" apparently because "March 10" is around the corner.

There was a different news piece that struck me. It directly relates to the questions I raised in an earlier post. The government has allotted 5.8 billion US$ to displace even more Tibetans in the name of environmental protection. How I wish people paid more attention and probed deeper into these issues. Here's the brief update from TIN:

"Tibetan nomads, farmers may be losers in China's ecology protection plan (Xinhua) More Tibetans are set to be displaced, losing their ancestral land, homes and way of life, as China spends 20 billion yuan (UK4.1 bn; $US5.8 bn; EUR4.5) during its eleventh Five-Year Plan period (2006-2010) to build a State Ecological Safe Shelter Zone on the Tibetan Plateau, reported state-run Xinhua. "Problems such as grassland degradation, land desertification, glacier meltdown, soil erosion etc. are affecting the whole ecological environment in China" because of the deterioration of the environment on the plateau, it said. Three shelter zones will be constructed from 2008 to 2030. The report said measures will include returning grazing land to pastures, controlling rodent and pest damage, standardising construction of five regional nature reserves and rural biogas construction."

On a different note, the High Peaks Pure Earth blog has an interesting story about Angry Tibetan Netizens over continued use animal fur by Tibetans on their ceremonial dresses.

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