Canada and Crime Against the Tibetan People

The Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) of His Holiness the Dalai Lama has issued a statement on mining in Tibet. The statement was issued at a roundtable discussion that was held in London on 22-23 September 2009, on the Shethongmon mine project. Shethongmon is a rural area in South-western Tibet, about 250 kilometres west of Lhasa, the capital city of Tibet. The roundtable meeting was organized by TibetInfoNet, which is also a consultant for Continental Minerals, the Canadian company invested in the project.

According to the statement, the CTA is against any such mining project in Tibet. The statement, however, does not mention how grave these investments are. Despite having its pleas and moral suasions repeatedly ignored by Canadian mining companies, the exile Tibetan leadership continues to engage in these discussions. For the purposes of this blog, instead of writing about these exchanges I think it is better to highlight the crimes and injustices these mining projects perpetuate.

The CTA statement cites three major mining related protests in Tibet that occurred in 2009. It failed to mention that a protest actually took place against the Shethongmon mining project on 19th June 2006. According to reliable sources, soon after the protest, disciplinary officials of the Party started "education campaigns" in the villages, telling farmers that mining is good for them and that dissenting opinions will not be tolerated.

Local protests against mining are not new in Tibet. Farmers in not-very-distant area of Meldo Gungkar, for example, have been protesting in their area since 1991 (see chapter 6 of CTA's report, Tibet: Environment and Development Issues 2000). Even as recent as two months ago, there were reports of clashes between local Tibetans and Chinese miners at the Meldo Gungkar's Gyama mine site. And two weeks ago, this intensely disputed mine was bought by another Vancouver based company named Jinshan.

As usual, here's a question for readers: How is Canada able to gain such deals in Tibet? Canada is the only Western country with significant investments in mining in Tibet. Any informed person would know that such deals must include heavy corruption and deep connections with the Party.

It must be noted here that all Tibetans are NOT against mining. Apart from Tibetans profiting from Chinese rule, there are also some progressive and business minded Tibetans in exile who think mining could be beneficial for Tibetans. The issue is not mining. It is about how decisions are made. It is about the problematic hierarchy of interests/considerations (economic vs ecological, state-political vs local-cultural, etc.) that fuel these decisions. It is about who makes these decisions, who gets the benefits and who loses.

Local Tibetans affected by the Shethongmon mine will likely be given some compensation. The profits will go to the company and the Chinese authorities. It is estimated that about 200 to 300 million US dollars would be paid by the company from their net profit to the government as Corporation Tax (at 35 %), which is the international norm. The company's conservative estimate of the expected return rate is 2.5 times the capital investment.

Foreign companies mining in Tibet are engaging in a kind of legalized robbery. Stealing can be lawful when lawmakers are colonial masters. The application of principles of corporate social responsibility ought to first look at more fundamental questions such as "Who are the legitimate owners of Tibet's gold and other mineral resources?" "What are the rights of an indigenous people (or nation) to their land?" These are not academic or philosophical questions. Canadians need not look far but into their own constitution (Section 35 of the 1982 Constitution Act) for general guidance.


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For background information on Shethongmon project, visit Continental Minerals' website. TibetInfoNet has published some reports on the project which can be read here and here. There is a campaign against these projects lead by Students for a Free Tibet and Canada Tibet Committee. Visit their website.

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Dams on Yarlung Tsangpo (Brahmaputra): More Info

Thanks to 'Stone Routes' who just posted a comment on one of my posts about dams on Yarlung Tsangpo. It made me realize that I had forgotten to share further information about the five dams on the river (also called the Brahmaputra).

These five dams are Zangmu (རྫམ་ or dzam), Jiacha (རྒྱ་ཚ་ or Gyatsa), Zhongda (སྒྲོམ་མདའ་ or Zhomda) and Lengda (གླིང་མདའ་ or Lingda), and Jiexu and Langzhen. Only Zangmu project is being built right now and others are in the project pipeline. I am unable to find the original Tibetan names for Jiexu and Langzhen so far. If any of the readers know the Tibetan names, please let me know. I used the Tibetan & Himalayan Library to find the latitudinal and longitudinal coordinates of Zangmu (29.14 and 92.52), Gyatsa (29.11 and 92.71) and Lingda (29.07 and 92.72) townships. Here is a Google Earth image of the location of these five dam sites.



You can use the coordinates at the bottom of the image or the inverted 'V' shape of the river on the right hand corner of the image to navigate approximate locations. Better still if you have good internet connection to browse Google Earth online, you can use this link prepared by Kevin Li of the International Rivers Network.
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Doctored Google Earth Images: Is Google Helping China Falsify Information?

A dam located about 100 km NE of Lhasa, known as the Zhikhong Dam, is appearing mysteriously vague in Google Earth (GE). GE shows the surrounding area including the large reservoir in high resolution but the image of the dam is in low-resolution. It is possible to see strips of old images between new images in GE but in this case the images fit the end of the reservoir exactly, and the boundary between the two images is curved, which is unusual.

A jpg image of the region taken from GE is posted here (below). I don't know how to upload kmz files or links that will take readers directly into Google Earth. So readers interested in looking up more closely should use the coordinates at the bottom of the image. Going up closer to the location in GE is much more convincing than the jpg photo shared here.



I mentioned this observation to a friend and colleague from Green College, who used to work for Google Maps, the amazing Ducky. She checked the images and found them suspicious. Upon her advice, we decided to alert Google Earth about this and to see their response.

What do you think is going on here? Is Google Earth covering up for China? Or is someone supplying GE with doctored images? Or may be someone in Google Earth is working against company policies?

Did you know that a giant alian bug was found in a part of Germany in GE?

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"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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"Are the police allowed to fish?"

A Tibetan blogger by the name "Ling Se Jur Tha" (གླིང་སྲས་བྱུར་མཐའ) reports fishing in the Zoege (Ch: Ruo’ergai) grasslands at the source of Machu (Yellow) River. The blog was posted on July 26, 2009. The blogger is reporting this incident because on the one hand the government claims protection of the Zoege Wetland as a nature reserve, while its own policemen, on the ground, are breaking the same law "with pride".

When independent media is absent, such citizen journalism deserves our close attention. If you read Tibetan, read the comments by readers on the original post . One of them suggests noting the vehicle number and reporting to higher authorities. Tibetans bloggers engaging in citizen journalism was first publicly identified by High Peaks Pure Earth.


A quick note on the importance of wetlands: Wetlands perform key roles in a river's hydrological cycle. During wet seasons when there is risk of flooding and high erosive activity due to increased flow in rivers, wetlands help reduce these risks by absorbing water like a sponge. The excess water is slowly released during dry season. Wetlands also filter sediments, chemicals and nutrients in groundwater.

I don't know what kind and quantity of fish are in the Zoege Wetlands but this area is known to bird lovers as a prime site for viewing migratory birds such as Black-necked Crane and Mongolian Plover.

Here is the translated post (in italics) with pictures.

Are the police allowed to fish?



This policeman is fishing in the vast Zoege grassland region (read the Tibetan language post for precise description of the location). I asked the policeman, "Can the police fish in the river?" He replied, "Of course," with pride.



Here he is, fishing. The laws and regulations of China are a joke.




This is his [police] car.

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Tourism and Festivals in Tibet

I often hear from people wanting to visit Tibet. They usually want to know what places to visit, what to avoid, when is a good time, and if they could work with some local group as a volunteer. I think these are good questions. And then there are stupid, or should I just say, bad, questions.

Here is one of the bad questions people ask: what kind of things, such as pencils and photos of the Dalai Lama, should they take as gifts for Tibetans, especially for poor children. Giving gifts randomly is a bad idea, especially if it is something the government prohibits, such as pictures of the Dalai Lama. Giving candies, pencils, etc., randomly to children reminds me of throwing bread crumbs to fish in the lake, or to monkeys by the roadside. At parks here in Canada, I see signs restricting people from giving food to animals -- it habituates them, changing their normal way of life. Same thing, but only worse. Tibetans are humans! A friend said it quite well: Tourists should not demean children by treating them as beggars and coming across as a rich almsgiver.

If you are interested in visiting Tibet, read How Not To Be A Tourist in Tibet.

The inspiration for writing this blog actually came from reading this news piece. If you are able to decipher the statistics explained in the article with strange English, please explain in the comments section below. The gist of the article as I understand it is this: A lot of tourists are pouring into Tibet, much more than last year, especially from within China. The rise in the number of tourists is not surprising. The number of tourists last year dropped radically after the March 14 Uprising, and the martial law, and the shutting-off of the Tibetan Plateau, and all the sensitivities surrounding the Olympics.

What really got me thinking was the last sentence which is clearly meant to entice more tourists. I quote a section of the sentence: "in the second half year, more tourists will be attracted as some large-scale activities such as "Miss Asia" Tibet Division Contest, 4th Namtso International Hiking Convention and the annual Shoton Festival will kick off."

Miss Asia? Surely Miss Tibet should be invited. OK, I am being facetious here. But more seriously, it is deeply disturbing that the government promotes certain Tibetan festivals such as the Shoton because of their tourism prospects, while at the same time they tell Tibetans not to celebrate other festivals such as the Buddha Purnima, Sakadawa in Tibetan, the most sacred day for all Buddhists. The government has instructed Tibetans to celebrate Chinese (or is it Korean?) Dragon Boat Festival instead. I highly recommend a close reading of this blogpost by a Tibetan expressing his/her feelings about this in a clever way. Read the contextual introduction of the blogpost by High Peaks Pure Earth carefully as well, and you will know what I am talking about.
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New Map Sheds Light on Tawu Protest and the Future of Eastern Tibet

Recently it was reported that tens of thousands of Tibetans gathered in Tawu county of Kandze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture to protest against government plans to build a large dam between Nyagchu and Tawu counties. Local authorities had issued a relocation notice to the locals, which in turn incited the protest. The incident resulted in the police shooting at the protesters.

In a previous blog post, I opined that the dam is the Lianghekou dam because news reports do not mention the name of the dam. The Lianghekou will be one of the world's tallest dams at nearly 300 meters in height. The dam is designed with a 6.33 billion cubic meter capacity reservoir that will extend 90 km from the dam up the Nyagchu River. A reservoir so large will most likely require relocation of thousands of farmers living along the river.

It should be noted here that Lianghekou is just one of the 21 dams built/planned on the Nyagchu River by the Ertan Hydropower Development Company. I write this blog post to share the following map of these dams.



I will not repeat what is clearly shown in the map. Click on the map to deduce for yourself how these dams will change the face of eastern Tibet. This map is the most accurate publicly available document of its kind.

Here are three questions I would like to pose to readers to ponder and research:

1. Where are most of the corruption happening within these projects, assuming corruption is endemic in the Chinese dam industry? 

2. Where will most of the power generated from these dams be diverted? To the west for China's most ambitious copper mine/smelter, the Yulong, or to the east for Chinese cities, or for the local communities?

3. What is the best way to raise awareness about the social and environmental costs of these projects within China?

Dams Planned, Under Construction, or Operated by Ertan Hydropower Development Company, Ltd. on the Nyagchu (Yalong River), Sichuan, PRC

There are currently 21 hydropower dam planned, under construction, or operated on the Nyagchu (Yalong River) by Ertan Hydropower Development Company, Ltd.. These are listed below and their locations shown on the map above. The five categories are those given on the Ertan website and are most likely out of date. While the operational dams and dams under construction are still correct, it is possible that one or more of the dams said to be in the preparatory stage to be in fact more accurately characterized as under construction.

Location of Projects on the Map

The positions of the projects on the map have been estimated from the Ertan Cascade Projects Planning chart, several maps showing planned dams along the Nyagchu, a 1984 report on dams planned in the PRC by U.S. Department of Commerce which included a map and a cascade chart for all but one of the dams from Lainghekou south, and additional geographical information about the dams. The locations of projects from Lianghekou south have been confirmed by at least two sources as well as the Cascade Projects Planning chart. The distances up the river were also verified using the path option in Google Earth, which in a couple of cases was surprisingly accurate. The Ertan dam is visible in Google Earth image so coordinates are available for it. The map is not definitive (i.e. is not based on a exact coordinates verified on the ground), but is accurate for its scale, based on information currently publicly available. It corrects some of the maps which were used as sources, and is more accurate and complete than any we were able to find.

The following information are directly from the website of Ertan Hydropower Development Company.

Power Station in Operation

Ertan
The Ertan website states "Ertan Hydropower Station is China’s largest hydropower station completed in the 20th century. Construction of Ertan Power Station created several “No. Ones” in China and in the world, which are:

No. ones in China:
1. China’s first high dam exceeding 200m.
2. China’s largest group of underground caverns and tunnels (also the largest in Asia).
3. China’s largest power plant built in the 20th century (with a total capacity of 3,300MW).
4. China’s largest unit capacity of 550MW, realizing a big leap from 335MW to 550MW.
5. China’s first hydropower project fully open for international competitive bidding.

No. ones in the world:
1. A project for which the World Bank provided the largest loan as a single project.
2. The total load of 980 tonnes taken by the dam and the designed spillway capacity of 22,480 m3/s are the largest among high dams in the world.
3. The cross section of the diversion tunnels (23m high by 17.5m wide) is the largest in the world."


Projects Under Construction

Jinping I
Located in the counties of Yanyuan and Muli, Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province. Its large reservoir makes it a controlling project in the lower reach of the main river. Jinping-I is huge in scale, and power generation is its main purpose. The project has a total installed capacity of 3,600MW (6 × 600MW). Its total storage capacity is 7.76 billion m3, and with a regulation storage of 4.91 billion m3, it is a storage capacity is 7.76 billion m3, and with a regulation storage of 4.91 billion m3. The project consists of permanent structures categorized as water retaining, spillway and dissipation, and power tunnels and powerhouse complex. Its 305m-high double curvature concrete arch dam is one of the world’s highest dams. Total construction period of the project is 9 years and 3 months, and its total static investment is RMB19.68 billion yuan, while the total dynamic investment is RMB24.58 billion yuan.

Jinping II
Located on the large Jinping River Bend, and is the second of the five cascade projects on the river section from Kala down to the estuary. Jinping-II is designed to cut the 150km river bend by a group of power tunnels to use the natural drop created by the bend. The project primarily consists of a headwork sluice dam, spillway structures, power tunnels and powerhouse complex. The dam is 7.5km downstream of Jinping-I dam. Jinping-II reservoir itself only has a capacity of daily regulation, but when jointly operated with Jinping-I, it also has the capacity of yearly regulation. The 4 power tunnels have an average length of 16.6km and an excavated diameter of 13m, which are among the world’s longest and largest hydraulic tunnels. The powerhouse complex sits underground on the other side of the river bend. The project has a total installed capacity of 4,800MW (8 × 600MW), which gives a multiyear average annual generation of 24.23TWh. Total construction period of the project is 8 years and 3 months, and its total static investment is RMB24.98 billion yuan, while the total dynamic investment is RMB29.77 billion yuan.


Projects in Preparatory Stage

Guandi
Situated 30 km from Xichang City in straight line and 80 km by road. It is the third of the five cascade projects on the river section from Kala to the estuary, and connects with the downstream Ertan Project. The main purpose of Guandi Project is power generation, and its total installed capacity is 2400MW. With the maximum height of the dam being 168m. The reservoir has a total storage of 760 million cubic meters. The complex mainly consists of a RCC (roller compacted concrete) gravity dam, an underground powerhouse on the right bank, and spillway facilities. Its total static investment is RMB12.49 billion yuan, while the total dynamic investment is RMB15.2 billion yuan.

Tongzilin
Situated in Yanbian County of Panzhihua municipality, Sichuan Province, 18km to its upstream Ertan Dam and 15km to the confluence of the Yalong and Jinsha rivers. It is the last cascade project on the Yalong River. The total installed capacity of the project is 600MW (4×150MW). The complex consists of the water-retaining dam sections on both sides, a river-bed type powerhouse, and spillway structures. The maximum dam height is 66.63m, and the length of the dam crest is 468.7m."

Lianghekou
Situated in Yajiang County of Ganzi Prefecture, Sichuan Province. The project sits where the Yalong merges respectively with the Qingda and Xianshui rivers, hence the name “lianghekou” (meaning “estuary of two rivers”). Because of its particular location with one dam blocking three rivers, and because of its large reservoir, this project is truly a controlling project in the middle and lower reaches of the Yalong. The reservoir, with a regulation storage of 6.33 billion cubic meters, has the capacity of multi-year regulation, and will therefore provide good compensation for all its downstream cascade power stations on the Yalong and even on the Jinsha and Yangtze. The total installed capacity of the project is 3,000MW. The project has favorable development conditions, and will play an important role in improvement of the power source structure of Sichuan power grid, optimization of power source configuration, and fulfillment of the strategy of West-to-East transmission of electric energy. It is a strategic fulfillment of the strategy of West-to-East transmission of electric energy. It is a strategic project for hydroelectric development of the Yalong River and even the whole West, and for coordinated socioeconomic development.


Projects in Investigation Stage

The Ertan website states "The middle reach river section, from Lianghekou to Kala, is 268km long. According to the approved planning, there are six projects in this section of the river, namely Lianghekou (3,000MW), Yagen (1,400MW), Lenggu (2,718MW), Mengdigou (1,840MW), Yangfanggou (1,500MW), and Kala (1,080MW), with a total capacity of approximately 11.54GW. Of these projects, Lianghekou has a large controlling reservoir.

Yagen Hydroelectric Project Yagen Hydroelectric Project is located in Yajiang County of Ganzi Prefecture, Sichuan Province. Its intended capacity is 1,400MW, which will yield a multi-year power generation of 6,368GWh. The expected static investment is about 9.64 billion yuan.

Lenggu Hydroelectric Project Lenggu Hydroelectric Project is located in Kangding and Yajiang counties of Ganzi Prefecture, Sichuan Province. Its intended capacity is 2,718MW, which will yield a multi-year power generation of 12,570GWh. The expected static investment is about 22.25 billion yuan. Pre-feasibility study of the project is in process.

Mengdigou Hydroelectric Project Mengdigou Hydroelectric Project is located in Jiulong County of Ganzi Prefecture and Muli County of Liangshan Prefecture, Sichuan Province. Its intended capacity is 1,840MW, which will yield a multi-year power generation of 9,070GWh. The expected static investment is about 12.62 billion yuan. Pre-feasibility study of the project is in process.

Yangfanggou Hydroelectric Project Yangfanggou Hydroelectric Project is located in Muli County of Liangshan Prefecture, Sichuan Province. Its intended capacity is 1,500MW, which will yield a multi-year power generation of 7,05GWh. The expected static investment is about 10.77 billion yuan. Pre-feasibility study of the project is in process.

Kala Hydroelectric Project Kala Hydroelectric Project is located in Muli County of Liangshan Prefecture, Sichuan Province. Its intended capacity is 1,080MW, which will yield a multi-year power generation of 5,24GWh. The expected static investment is about 9.0 billion yuan. Pre-feasibility study of the project is in process."


Projects in Planning Stage

The Ertan website states, "The upper reach of the river, from Jiayisi to Lianghekou, is 688km long, and development planning for this section is underway. Based on the investigation data obtained to date, 10 cascade projects with a total installed capacity of 3,250MW are intended to be built, which are Wenbosi (150MW), Renqingling (300MW),Reba (250MW), Ada (250MW), Geni (200MW), Tongha (200MW), Yingda (500MW), Xinlong (500MW), Gongke (400MW), and Gongbagou (500MW)."

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"Medicinal Herbs"

I was browsing through Tibetan language blogs, and I came across this brief post by sKar Mig (སྐར་མིག་གི་ཟིན་བྲིས་) expressing concern about the ecological implications of excessive digging of medicinal herbs on the Tibetan Plateau. Over the years, the number of Tibetan families depending on the harvest of herbs, mainlyYartsa Gunbu (དབྱར་རྩ་དགུན་འབུ་ / also known as caterpillar fungus or Cordyceps sinensis), has been growing throughout the TIbetan Plateau, mainly in the south and the east. Daniel Winkler's website has lots of useful information and pictures related to mushrooms of the Tibetan Plateau. I met Daniel Winkler last year at UBC, where he did a presentation on "The Mushrooming Fungi Market on the Tibetan Plateau". I asked him about the ecological sustainability of Yartsa Gumbu, and he did not seem too worried about it because data available to him show that so far both the harvest and growth of cordiceps around the plateau have been favorable.

While there seems to be no systematic study that looks at the question of the ecological sustainability of livelihood based on yartsa gunbu, informed people like Professor Emily Yeh are concerned about the long term social and economic risks associated with excessive reliance on the yartsa gunbu trade. Today a significant proportion of the Tibetan population depend on collection and sale of cordyceps. What if this livelihood becomes impossible for whatever reason (legal bans/ecological/etc/)?

Here are the Image of the original Tibetan blog post and its English translation:



This year again people are digging the ground everywhere on the Tibetan Plateau . Since numerous Tibetans, Chinese as well as Muslims (harvesters) have been digging out the earth to gain medical herbs for decades. If this continues, severe damage in the ecosystem of the region will occur. It is urgent that the Government and the informed people do something to avert such a situation.

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2 Yunnan dams cancelled for environmental concerns

Xinhua reported on June 11 that the government canceled several projects, including two hydro-electric dam projects in Northern Yunnan. The article, however, does not provide any information about these two dams. Which are these two dams and where are they?

The dams are called Ludila and Longkaikou projects, which are a part of eight dams planned on upper Yangtze (Drichu in Tibetan and Jinsha in Chinese). The eight dams are shown with blue pointers here . Ludila and Longkaikou are the two southernmost dams among the eight. These two dams are about 50 km south of Lijiang (Sartham) as shown in the Google Earth image below.



[end of post]

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Update: Mining protest over Ser Ngul Lo

Earlier, I posted about a news report on a standoff between local Tibetans and police over a mining project. The protesters were demanding that a Chinese mining company stop its activities and plans on a sacred site, Ser Ngul Lo. Radio Free Asia has an update that the Tibetans have succeeded in stopping the mining project. There is hope.

[End of update].

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Police shoot at Tibetan protesters: which dam project is it?

Two weeks ago in Tawu region in Kandze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, there was a major protest against relocation of tens of thousands of Tibetans to make room for a dam/reservoir. The most shocking part of news was that officials from China's Public Security Bureau and People's Armed Police shot "indiscriminately" into the crowd and left six Tibetan women "seriously wounded." I blogged about the news sharing some photos and Google Earth images of the region.

Unfortunately, there is very little information about the protest. Both Tibetan language and English language sources use the same narrative about the incident with no specific information about the dam project. This leaves us wondering: how are so many Tibetans affected by a dam project? Which dam project is this? Here are my answers (please correct me if you think I am wrong):

It is the Lianghekou dam project (see copyright-free map below). The Lianghekou is a very large reservoir that will be built at the confluence of three rivers: Nyagchu (or Yalong), Qingda and Xianshui (does anyone know the Tibetan name for this river? Is it Dachu? Zhe Chu?). It is designed as one of the three regulatory reservoirs for 21 dams that are built/planned on the Nyagchu River by the Ertan Hydropower Development Company. According to information on company's website, the reservoir's capacity is 6.33 billion cubic meters, the second largest on the river. It is estimated that the reservoir will extend 90 km from the dam up the Nyagchu, 80 km up the Xianshui River approaching Tawu, and 28 km up the Qingda (see google earth image below).


[This map is copyright-free. Please use it!]


[Rough estimation of Lianghekou Reservoir extension according to altitude and distance. This is guesswork: do not use this image. Stay tuned. I will post more accurate information soon]

Who funds these dam projects?
Ertan Hydropower Development Company is jointly owned by China's State Development & Investment Corporation (48% of shares), the Sichuan Provincial Investment Group Co., Ltd. (48%), and China Huadian Corporation (4%). According to the General Manager Chen Yunhua, Ertan Hydroelectric Project was "the only project world-wide which received, as a single project, the biggest sum of loan (930 million USD equivalent) from the World Bank" (see p.5 of the link).

Is the project good for the local people, the economy or the environment?
Agriculture and pastoralism are the main livelihoods of the people in the region. The Lianghekou Reservoir will inundate most of the farms (agricultural fields) and villages within the area it will cover. The area is also famous for its forests and beautiful lakes. Below is a Google Earth image as an example of farmland and forest area near the Xianshui River that will be inundated by the reservoir. Marshall and Cooke has written about China's disturbing logging practices in the region, which probably continued until such practices were banned in the late 90's due to flooding downstream in the Yangtze River. I also found this essay about the region's wondrous beauty by a little girl from Kangding (Dartsedo) Middle School.



If the project is so bad for the local economy, the environment and the people, one has to ask why local authorities are so adamant about the project going ahead that they would shoot at protesters. What do you think?
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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.

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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.

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ALL of the nomads in Amdo region (Qinghai) to be resettled

This is a quick post to share a published source of a disturbing piece of information. This blog has several postings on the topic of resettlement of Tibetan nomadic herders. You can read them here and here. In another posting, I asked readers to share data (numbers) on actual government resettlement plans in Amdo (Qinghai) region.

A reader who wishes to remain anonymous pointed out an article by David Goodman published in 2004, in The China Quarterly, titled "Qinghai and the Emergence of the West: Nationalities, Communal Interaction and National Integration" (Vol. 178, pp: 379-399). On page 61 of this article, there is a disturbing sentence: "The [Qinghai] provincial government’s goal is to settle all nomads by 2011, claiming to have completed the process experimentally in Hainan district by the end of 2001."


If it is true that government plans to resettle ALL nomadic herders in the region, I wonder why people -- including experts I have consulted -- did not know or tell me about it?! Very strange.

Anyways, for further information, David Goodman's source for that information is: Wei Xingguo and Jing Fachang, “Hainan mumin quanbu shixian dingju” (“Hainan herdsmen now live in settlements”), Qinghai ribao, 28 January 2002, p. 1.
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20 more dams on the sources of Yangtze (Drichu) River

About 400 Chinese water managers and bureaucrats have gathered in Shanghai for the 3rd Yangtze Forum, which began yesterday, to discuss about the condition and plans for development of the Yangtze River. The Associated Press reported today that an official said that at least 20 dams will be build on its headwater tributary rivers: Yalong (Nyachu), Dadu (Gyarong Ngulchu) and Wujiang rivers. China Daily quotes Cai Qihua, director of Yangtze Water Resources Committee, that currently only 36% of Yangtze hydropower potential is exploited. Plans are to increase its exploitation to 50% by 2020, and then to 60% by 2030 (as given in the graphic figure below). I suspect these plans do not consider the complex implications of climate change on future water availability in these rivers seriously enough.



My guess is that these twenty dams include those slated for the Western Route of the South-North Water Transfer Project. The size of these dams is staggering: 175 meters high dam on Nyachu (Yalong River) connected with 131 kilometer long tunnel, and a 296 meter high dam on Gyarong Ngulchu (Dadu River) connected by a nearly-30 kilometers long tunnel, and much more.

The only people who can stop China from undertaking these projects are the Chinese people. Chinese environmentalists, officials, academics, journalists, and citizens, should speak out to stop these projects before it is too late. Demand for proper environmental impact assessment of these projects is a good way to start discussion.
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India and China starts a Dams Race on the Brahmaputra River

Worried that China might build a very big dam on the Brahmaputra River near its borders, India has recently approved two big dams of their own, "in principle", on the same river downstream in its state of Arunachal Pradesh. What is interesting, and disturbing at the same time, is that India is building these dams to pre-empt China by establishing a prior use claim.

A key member of India's Planning Council, Dr. Kirit Parikh, is reportedly pushing for this idea as "a broad strategic vision". I disagree with Dr. Parikh because China is not known for respecting riparian rights on international rivers. On the contrary, I think his words would only give more excuse for China to push ahead with their plans.


What follows is an editorial I wrote in 2004 in response to the news that India expressed concerns about Chinese plans then:

Let the Brahmaputra Flow
Tashi Tsering
Trin-Gyi-Pho-Nya: Tibet's Environment and Development Digest. January 12, 2004, Issue 4.

India finally expressed concern over Chinaís plans to divert the Brahmaputra River. In November 2003, several Indian news reports carried a story that the Indian state of Assamís Union Ministry of Water Resources asked their foreign affairs counterparts ìto seek factual detailsî about the project. Indiaís concerns became real after Chinaís official news agency, Xinhua, confirmed Chinaís intentions. According to Xinhua, preliminary studies of the water diversion project were conducted at the proposed construction site in mid-2003, followed by another round of feasibility studies in October. It would not be surprising if China denies having such plans, as did Tibet Autonomous Regionís Chairman, Xiang Ba Ping Cuo, at a press conference last August.

Construction of this mammoth multi-purpose project is tentatively scheduled to start in 2009. The main structures are planned in Tibetan areas of Pema Koe, near Indiaís northeastern border. The area is also known as the ìGreat Bendî of the Yarlung Tsangpo (Tibetan name for Brahmaputra) where the river takes a sharp U-turn to enter into India. At the Great Bend, the Tsangpo River descends over 3,000 meters in approximately 200 km, constituting one of the greatest hydropower potentials anywhere in the world. China hopes to build a hydroelectric plant there that would generate twice the electricity produced by the Three Gorges Dam, currently the worldís largest dam. Plans also include diverting the waters thousands of kilometers across the Tibetan Plateau to the ìthirstyî northwestern parts of China, into the provinces of Xinjiang and Gansu.

If undertaken, the project is bound to raise some serious transboundary issues. Claude Arpi, a Tibet-China-India analyst, called the project ìa declaration of warî by China. "When it comes to a transboundary question, where the boundary is not even agreed upon, it seems practically impossible to find a workable understanding," Arpi said. In addition to border disputes, the project would make India and Bangladesh dependent on China for release of water during the dry season, and for protection from floods during the wet season. Not to mention the adverse impacts on the millions of people living downstream when nutrient rich sediments and fish will be blocked by the dam. Arpi believes the most serious issue to be the fact that the Great Bend area is located in a highly earthquake prone area. "A huge reservoir and a few PNEs [Peaceful Nuclear Explosions, as proposed by Chinese scientists to make tunnels through the Himalayas for the project] could provoke new earthquakes even more devastating than in August 1950 when thousands died."

Such massive water control projects are clearly a state (central government) undertaking--without the economic and political support of the state, these projects cannot proceed. Unfortunately, and often ironically, national leaders prefer to marvel at their engineering accomplishments in controlling nature to serve economic development rather than addressing issues of transboundary and socio-environmental responsibilities. In fact, Chinaís plan to divert the Brahmaputra would impair India's own plan to link approximately thirty of its own rivers, a project that is bound to affect the downstream riparian state of Bangladesh.

Such international transboundary river development projects raise many important issues--from the comparative importance of national economic development to issues of social justice, from the primacy of territorial sovereignty to the merits of international cooperation. As important as these intractable topics of debate are, policy makers ought not to forget the real issue--the concern expressed by the affected people. After all, states exist to provide material and physical security to the people. The goal of development policies should be to benefit the people first, not powerful interest groups like corrupt bureaucracies and businesses.

While the Brahmaputra Diversion Plan will bring sizeable benefits to China in the form of construction jobs, electricity, and water for the "thirsty north," the price that the affected people and the environment must pay is clearly unacceptable. For the local Tibetans, the project is an imposition on their land and their birthright by the occupying Chinese government. The beneficiaries of the project are foreigners while "locals" are made to bear its price. If China is genuinely committed to human rights and sustainable development as it claims to be, then the Brahmaputra Diversion Plan should not be undertaken.
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Uranium near Pangong Lake (སྤང་གོང་མཚོ༑) in Ladakh

I came across a news article from 2007 titled, "India finds uranium in icy Ladakh." It says that the uranium content (concentration) is the highest ever reported in India: as high as 5.36 percent compared to around 0.1 percent or less found in other sources of the country. If this is true, and if the reserves are significantly large, it is huge news (well, not any more) for India's nuclear program, especially for those who advocate India's nuclear independence and oppose the US-India nuclear deal. I actually travelled to that part of Ladakh, all the way to Spangmik Village of Pangong Lake, with a local freelance reporter, Tashi Morup . Here are some photos from that trip.














The fate of the people living in this corner of the world is uncertain. The farmers, pastoralists as well as nomads in this part of the region are concerned, nay, angry, at government plans to turn the region into a wildlife sanctuary. They are worried that government plans will impinge upon their traditional way of life. A wildlife sanctuary may restrict the number of livestock they can keep, limit their grazing area, ban collection wood, hunting and other such practices.










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Photo of dam on Indus (Senge Tsangpo)

A friend just sent me a link which has a photo of "The Sengye Tsangpo Hydropower Station." Upon comparing the photo with the dam on Ngari I found on Google Earth last week, it's clear that these are the same dam. According to the text on the photo, the Sengye Tsangpo Hydropower Station has an installed capacity of 6,400 Kilowatts and is now operational. Read more on this article...