Tibetan Poppy Blues

Blue poppy..
Originally uploaded by jetbluestone

"It's worth dying after you've seen a blue poppy once."

Who doesn't like flowers? I have been wanting to write blog posts about flowers. This is my first post on the topic. I would like to post more entries on flowers, so let me know if any of you readers have information about any flowers or would like to read about any specific flower. I would like to make a collection of Tibetan names of different common flowers, for educational purposes. I think it is "cool" for Tibetans to be able to name flowers in their mother tongue.

So let's start with the Tibetan names. The coveted Blue Poppy is known to Tibetans as Utpal Ngonpo (ཨུཏྤལ་སྔོན་པོ༑), and also as Tser-Ngon Metog (ཚེར་སྔོན་མེ་ཏོག༑) as it is known in Bhutan, where it is the national flower. An Amdo Tibetan doctor once told me about this flower and I have been fascinated by it since. I also have a friend nicknamed Utpal and that added to the fascination with the beautiful name. So I got distracted this morning and started looking for information about the flower on the web.

And boy was I surprised to see all the information! There are tons of scientific papers and many books written about this "elusive" flower. There is a young Tibetan woman who is doing her PhD on Blue Poppy -- isn't that great!? Some of the books that have Blue Poppy in its title include Dreams of the Blue Poppy by Angela Lock, The Blue Poppy and the Mustard Seed: A Mother's Story of Loss and Hope by Kathleen Willis Morton, Blue Poppies by Jonathan Falla, and most notably, The Land of the Blue Poppy by Francis Kingdon Ward. I might write about Francis Kingdon Ward in another post. First, this question: if this flower is studied and grown so much in gardens around the world, what is so "elusive" about it?

There is a new book and a website specifically devoted to this flower/book, Blue Heaven: Encounters with the Blue Poppy. The site describes the flower as "the most alluring due to its sheer beauty, its perfect poise and the astonishing clarity of the blue. It is the most sought after because it is rarely seen and widely thought to be impossible to grow, listed even by as experts as a formidable challenge."

Blue Poppies belong to the genus Meconopsis, which is endemic to only two regions of the world: Western Europe (known as the Welsh Poppy) and the Himalayas (known as the Himalayan or the Tibetan Poppy). Welsh Poppies are yellow or orange in color and the Himalayan Poppies are blue. There are three species of Himalayan Poppy: Meconopsis simplicifolia (discovered around 1848 in central Nepal by Dr. Wallich's collectors); Meconopsis Betonicifolia (discovered in 1886 in the Kham region by the eccentric British officer/spy Frederick Marshman Bailey); and Meconopsis Grandis (discovered around the 1880's in east Nepal). Here are some of the differences among these species: M. simplicifolia is the least known of the three species, it grows up to 5 feet in height with each stem holding a single flower, which is smaller than flowers of the other two species. M. Betenoifolia is the most common of the three (easiest to grow, more suitable to drier climates), grows 3 to 5 feet high and gets stems that can hold up to 5 flowers each. M. Grandis is the shortest, usually growing to a height of 2 feet, but its stems can handle up to 5 flowers. And the flowers are much bigger than in M. Betonicifolia.

Interestingly, Poppies International classifies M. Betonicifolia as "Himalayan Blue Poppy" and M. Grandis as "Tibetan Blue Poppy." I wonder about the basis/origin of these two common names. I wonder if the two Tibetan names Tsher-sNgon and Utpal sNgon-po can be separated for Himalayan Blue Poppy and Tibetan Blue Poppy. I don't now.

So Blue Poppy is mostly found on south and eastern parts of the Tibetan Plateau. Clearly this flower of high Asia requires cooler and moist soil to grow. If you are interested in growing "the most alluring" Utpal Ngonpo, The Garden of Eden blog has a few posts which might be a good introduction. This post suggests ways of growing from seed, and this has information about planting and growing Blue Poppy. Here is an interesting tip from Garden of Eden, the depth or shade of blue color of Tibetan poppies depends on soil pH level, just like hydrangeas. For those interested in more factual information, this is the best site I found.

Some myth busters: Blue Poppies do not produce the drug, opium. Sorry guys! Not all poppies are narcotic. And although Blue Poppies are used in Tibetan medicine, they have no scientifically proven medicinal value. Apparently there are all kinds of products and services marketed around myths surrounding the flower, the Himalayas, and Tibet. This site has some hilarious stories about this topic.

Read more on this article...

Soldiers open fire "indiscriminately" at Tibetan dam protestors

The Tibetan Government in Exile has reported at least 6 identified Tibetan women have sustained serious gunshot wounds for protesting against dam projects near their home. I have copy/pasted the entire story below. For some reason I didn't see the news until this afternoon. Here are some more information and photos about/from the region that might help contextualize the story.

Here is photo of Tawu County (རྟའུ་རྫོང༑) called Daofu Xian administrative seat. The two photos shared here are from Marshall and Cooke's landmark study, Tibet Outside TAR. I recommend reading a description of Tawu County by the same authors. The River Xianshui flows West to East on the South of Tawu county seat, after which it takes a sharp turn South to join Ngyagchu (ཉག་ཆུ༑) or Yalong River, near Nyagchuka (Ch: Yajiang) county. The thousands of protesters reported here are from areas situated between these two county seats: Tawu and Nyagchuka.


Here is an aerial (satellite) shot of the same area from Google Earth. Date photo taken and longtitude/latitude coordinates are visible if you click on the photos.


Here is a photo of Nyagchuka's Tibetan town, on the East side of the river. Again, this photo is from Marshall and Cooke's study, Tibet Outside TAR.


Since I first located the Indus River (Senge Tsangpo) dam on Google Earth, a friend and I have been searching other areas of the Tibetan Plateau for noticeable images. We found a lot of interesting stuff, including many dams and mining sites. And guess what, two of the dams we had marked are from this length of river where the dam is being built! Unfortunately the resolution of much of the region is not clear except for one patch (of image) which was taken nearly two years ago. These two dams are from that patch of image. If any of the readers have paid subscription to Google Earth and can help find other interesting stuff, that'd be much appreciated.

Note that the dams identified here are (most likely) not the one people are protesting. As the images show, these are relatively small run-off-river dams with no reservoirs. It is possible that of these are being submerged by the reservoir against which people are protesting. Notice that much of the surrounding area are forests and agricultural lands.





Also, I wonder why there were so many protestors against one dam. It must be a very big dam, with a huge reservoir that requires inundation of vast areas of land.

Yalong, or Nyagchu, is also the site for a planned 175-meter high dam, which will be connected with a 131 km long water diversion tunnel for the Western Route of the South-North Water Transfer Project.

OK, here's the news article from the Tibetan Government-in-Exile:

6 Tibetans Seriously Wounded in Protests Against China's Hydroelectric Dam Project

Tuesday, 26 May 2009, 10:00 a.m.
Dharamshala: At least 6 Tibetan women have sustained serious gunshot wounds after Chinese security forces opened fire at a group of Tibetans in Tawu County, who were venting their anger against China's forceful relocation of tens of thousands of local Tibetans, sources reported Monday.

The Public Security Bureau officials and People's Armed Police indiscriminately fired at Tibetan residents of Tawu and Nyagchu County in Karze Tibet Autonomous Prefecture, at around 11 a.m. (local time) on Sunday, 24 May.

The sources attributed the incident to China's construction of a major hydroelectric dam between Nyagchu and Tawu County, which is resulting in a large-scale displacement of local Tibetans. The government coerced local residents of Tawu County to sign a document as it begin to plan the construction work in early 2008.

This year the Chinese authorities again reinforce their relocation plan, which was vehemently opposed by the Tibetans who refused to leave their ancestral lands and houses.

Subsequently, on 5 May 2009, the Chinese government dispatched a large number of armed police to the region and destroyed homes of some families, including those of Ati Gyatso Tsang and Chego Pezi Tsang.

Earlier, the authorities convened a meeting and erected a stone pillar in their plan to relocate the residents of Wara Mato town to another place. Expressing strong opposition to the forced relocation policy, the angry residents led by an old woman named Lhamo, who is believed to be aged above 70, refused to move saying they are owner of the land and destroyed the pillar.

Consequently, as residents from Tawu and Nyagchu districts gathered in the region to protest the arrival of large number of troops on the morning of 24 May, the army fired shots leaving six Tibetan women seriously wounded.

Those wounded have been identified as Tsering Lhamo, Rigzin Lhamo, Dolma, Kelsang, Dolkar and Khaying.

But sources could not tell whether those injured are dead or alive as they were forcibly taken away after the firing incident. Read more on this article...

Ready to die defending sacred mountain

"Hundreds of Tibetans are facing off against armed security forces at Ser Ngol Lo, site of a planned gold mine in Tsangshul sub-district (Lhara Village, Markham County, Chamdo Prefecture) which natives consider a sacred mountain." Read more here: here.

Read the original news source from Radio Free Asia. Read more on this article...

Wen Jiabao intervenes in Salween Dam Project Again!

The Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has personally intervened in the construction of dams on the Salween River, once again, "calling for more careful environmental assessment and prudence before going ahead with the plan," according to the South China Morning Post. This intervention will halt the project for some time, as it happened earlier when the Premier first intervened in 2004. I am pleased to hear this news, but I wonder why he is intervening again.




China's official news agency Xinhua has quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu today saying that the "Chinese government attaches great importance to the utilization and protection of transnational rivers inside Chinese territory." Yeah right. Isn't the Mekong an international river?

The reasons provided by SCMP are far more believable: "Mr Wen ordered a halt to work on the Liuku hydropower station last month, telling authorities not to resume the plan until its impact on the ecology and local communities was fully understood." These are the same reasons provided in 2004. Chinese environmental activists campaigning to save the Salween River have been working very hard to keep the Premier's office apprised of these concerns and the state of construction on the ground. The real credit thus goes to the dedicated and well-coordinated work of these environmental activists.


Before I go further on this topic, I want to quickly bring up this notion of "two undammed rivers of China". This Times article quotes an activist saying that the Salween "is one of only two rivers in China that have not yet been dammed." I think the activist is assuming Yarlung Tsangpo (Brahmaputra) to be the other undimmed river. Chinese officials have made statements in the past that there are no dams on the main stream of the Brahmaputra River. This is misleading because China is building a 510 MW hydro project on the mainstream of the Brahmaputra river, about 140 km southeast from Lhasa, between Zangs-Ri (Sangri) and rGya-Tsha (Jiacha) counties.

Coming back to the work of environmental activists, one may wonder how they are able to campaign so successfully in a country like China where public works undertaken by powerful bureaucracies such as the Ministry of Water Resources, the Ministry of Machine Building and the Ministry of Construction are notorious for their lack of social and environmental concerns, as well as their use of state power to silence criticisms. How did a project in a remote location (in Yunnan Province and on the Salween River) attract sympathetic attention of national leaders? Where were these activists during the construction of the Three Gorges Project, the world's biggest dam?

The Three Gorges Dam is (probably) the most controversial construction projects undertaken by the PRC -- more than a million people were relocated to make way for the dam and its reservoir . Its construction began in 1994, directly under the supervision of the then Premier Li Peng. There are countless stories of corruption and mistreatment of relocatees and protestors. Dai Qing's work is a prominent example. Opposition to the project was not tolerated because the project was closely tied to the legitimacy of the Communist Party (by invoking, for example, Mao Zedong's support for the project) and the economic interests of key party leaders (e.g., China's power sector has been described as the "fiefdom of Li Peng family"). For more information on the dam, visit www.probeinternational.org and www.internationalrivers.org . In many ways, the sacrifices of the victims and activists of the Three Gorges Project paved the way for a new generation of critical environmentalists in China.

By early 2000, China had a critical mass of environmental activists and journalists who were beginning to form an informal alliance to check on China's dam construction madness. China has half of the world's large dams and it has been building more than one large dam per day since the inception of the country as PRC in 1949. The trend continues to this day. The only difference is that the size and the scale of these projects are getting bigger. In June 2003, a group of academics, journalists and civil society leaders gathered for a conference at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing to discuss the implications of irresponsible dam construction in the country. The conference was in fact the first of its kind in China.

The participants of the conference discussed many dam projects, including several that were planned on the Eastern and South-Eastern fringes of the Tibetan Plateau such as the Tiger Leaping Gorge dam, the Yeti Lake dam, and the Salween dams. It was informally decided among the activists that they will focus their campaign on the Salween Dams and the Tiger Leaping Gorge project. Unlike environmental activism in the West where campaigns often criticize the government, Chinese activists must work with the government. Their goal is to assist the government, specifically the State Environmental Protection Agency, in implementing its extensive environmental laws related to construction of development projects. And they had identified a perfect tool, the new Environmental Impact Assessment Law that was passed in 2003. The standards and specificities of regulations in the new EIA law are considered to be world class. The broader campaign strategy was to focus on saving the Salween River as a World Heritage Site.

Thus an unprecedented network of activists, journalists, ordinary citizens and government officials began a campaign, mainly of public education of the cultural and ecological heritage on the Nu Jiang or Salween River. On the ground public education work was spearheaded by veteran environmental activists like Wang Yongchen and Yu Xiaogang. Their campaign measures were remarkable because not only were these supportive of China's laws but these also had a kind of ripple effect of activism. Their innovative activities include sight-seeing and rafting tours in collaboration with local residents for officials, journalists and concerned citizens, and photo exhibitions in public places like the main post office in Beijing! This wonderful video provides an insight into the kinds of issues that have been advocated by these activists.



Not surprisingly this amazing campaign became famous. International media, governments, research think tanks, UN bodies, and not to mention ordinary Chinese people took notice. The campaigners also provided direct briefings to the office of national leaders. Thus in 2004, Premier Wen Jiabao intervened in the project and called for proper environmental assessment of the project.

A fresh round of environmental impact assessment was conducted and the review panel decided in 2005 that only four of the 13 proposed dams were allowable. The nine dams that were rejected by the review panel includes Songta Dam, planned in a location inhabited by ethnic Tibetans. The government has refused to disclose the EIA study. The study was classified as a "state secret" because of transboundary (international) implications of the project.

Then I read a report some time ago, which I am unable to locate right now, that preparation work for the construction of Salween Dams is going on covertly. This is alluded to the in the video above, expressing concern for the start of construction work for Liuku Dam, the first and the smallest of the four dams approved. Thus, the news about Wen Jiabao's intervention came as a delightful surprise.

Read more on this article...