Anima Green Snow Mountain in the Ice and Snow Pasture

The first Jia family grazed on the glacier snowfield all the year round. Because of party member's leading role, they were assigned to the highest pasture, only 500-600 meters away from the main peak of Qingxue Mountain in Anima, which is 6282 meters above sea level. During an interview in maduo county, the source of the Yellow River in Qinghai Province, I met party member Xianzeng, who seldom went down the mountain to purchase necessities. First of all, he is productive and generous. In a few words, he treated me as a friend and insisted that I drink the highland barley wine he carried with him. I later learned that the first family would graze on the glacier snowfield all the year round, because party member had to take the lead and was assigned to the highest pasture, only 500 to 600 meters away from the main peak of Qingxue Mountain in Anima, which is 6282 meters above sea level. I racked my brains to guess the lifestyle of Xian Zeng's family, but Xian Zeng was very moved and invited me to his home.

Believers in the mountains

I drove my horse home first. Two days later, I followed the route he told me and headed for Anima Green. The jeep went out of Maduo, turned east over Huashi Gorge, climbed several ridges, and the snow-covered mountain suddenly stood in front of me in the distance. In Tibetan, Anima Qing means "the highest waiter before the living Buddha". As the largest mountain at the source of the Yellow River, it has always been regarded as a sacred mountain by Tibetan compatriots. Every year, a large number of pilgrims climb mountains, wade in the water and sleep in the wind to worship. Looking from a distance, against the blue sky, the sunny and silvery snow peak is like a glittering jade carving, which makes people forget the troubles in the world at first sight.

Snow-capped mountains seem to be in sight, but after a few hours' drive, they are always out of reach. Fortunately, the scenery along the way was very enjoyable. It was summer, and the grass was yellow, yellow, green and lined with red, yellow, blue and white flowers, as if it were a carpet. The shepherd was driving the sheep on the carpet, but he saw a long white line moving on the endless yellow-green grass. In the vast world, people and sheep are like sandpipers! , very small.

Before sunset, my guide and I rushed to Xueshan Township and stayed here for one night. The car couldn't walk any further, so we changed horses and headed for Maqinggang Day, the main peak in Anima. We rode up the Qumu River, and after half an hour, we came to the "Quesna" God Land. "Quaina" means "a river flowing with white water" in Tibetan, because the water flowing down from the snow-capped mountains contains limestone, and the river is always milky and very quiet. At this time, I saw the herdsmen in twos and threes worshiping around the square pile of stones. It turned out that this stone pile with white prayer flags was piled up by Tibetans, and it was called "Aobao", which represented the official residence of mountain gods and naturally became a platform for offering sacrifices to Tibetan gods. The rule of turning the mountain is this: after worshipping in front of the altar, go around the mountain to show piety. We met Tibetan personality Zha here. In order to eliminate disasters and pray for blessings, he led his 80-year-old mother, his wife and four children, and used yaks to carry ghee, highland barley fried noodles and other daily necessities, and began to turn from the altar to the mountain. Lao Li said, generally around the mountain for a week, but devout Tibetans often walk around the mountain step by step, like Geza married with children, who walked for 35 days before returning to the altar. After hearing what he said, I can't help wondering: how can an 80-year-old woman spend these 30 days at such a high altitude and in the freezing cold? Without deep faith, it seems difficult to do it.

Tibetans in the Qinghai Mountain area of Animaq still maintain the ancient custom of worshipping rocks. They believe that Mount Animaqing is the fourth mountain god among the 2 1 mountain gods in Tibet and one of the 90 creation gods, and its status is very respected. Party member, a Tibetan place like Zengduo, often turns to mountains, because it is a Buddha in my heart. It is not a painful thing to live alone under the snowy peaks and graze every day.

Farewell to the Geza family, we staggered on horseback, and the closer we got to the snow-capped mountains, the thinner the air became, and the symptoms of chest tightness, head up and difficulty breathing appeared one after another, even the horses were panting.

After passing through one valley after another, on the cliff at the corner, a blue-black skyscraper stands in front of us. In front of the boulder is another altar. Smoke rose from the altar, and the smell of burnt butter and highland barley came to the nose. What's going on here? I leaned over and took a look. I saw Tibetans muttering to themselves and smearing thick ghee on the stone wall. On the high stone wall, golden wheat grains are arranged in Tibetan style, and red, yellow, blue and green sparkling "stones" are exposed in the middle of the crisp oil layer. Take a closer look, and you will find that they are not stones at all, but real pearls, agates and jade! I was dumbfounded. Tibetans have come all the way to bring such precious things as sacrifices to show their piety to the mountain gods.

Grazing in plateau snow area

After walking all day, we finally reached the foot of the main peak at dusk. At this time, the altitude has reached 5800-6000 meters. I saw a flock of golden sheep crawling on the snow. The scene in front of me is very different from the white sheep I saw on the yellow-green grassland along the way. The black tent of that family stands next to it. It is 6282 meters away from Anima Qingzhu Peak.

Master first added a family of five and lived in the mountains near here. It was already dark when we arrived, so we stood outside the tent and waited for us, fearing that something would happen on the road. As soon as Zhu Zi, the hostess, saw us, she came to help lead the horse with stirrups and let us dismount. Then the host led us into the tent. According to Tibetan customs, we sit on the floor with men and women.

I was shivering with cold outside, but as soon as I entered the tent, I gradually warmed up. Zhuge handed me a steaming bowl of milk tea, and then we were filled with Ciba, Qula and yogurt. After riding a horse for more than 10 hours, his lips are dry and his stomach is growling. At this time, I am chewing and drinking milk tea, which feels particularly sweet.

I didn't notice that Xianzeng's daughter Zhuoma was hiding her face next to the pillar, dodging her fingers from time to time and secretly looking at me as a strange guest. While teasing her to talk, I looked at the stove. The burning cow dung in the stove emitted a little flame from time to time in the generate, and the pot with a big belly clicked with the hot air, and everyone gradually cooked up.

Soon, a pot of steaming mutton was cooked, and Zhuge put the tail of the tender sheep in front of me with a silver Tibetan knife on it. It is the highest etiquette for Tibetans to entertain guests with sheep's tails. I thanked them quickly, cut off the sheep's tail according to the rules, cut off a piece and chewed it, feeling crisp, tender and smooth, fat but not greasy. After the banquet, I stood up first, holding a wine bowl in my left hand, holding a wine bottle in my right hand, swinging my right arm and turning my body, singing Tibetan songs in a hoarse and high-pitched voice and urging me to drink frequently. Tibetans are used to singing opera about wine. Although I don't drink at ordinary times, I can't resist the hospitality that increases first and then decreases like fire, and I always drink. Xian Zeng's family appreciated me doing as the Romans do, and the young and old took the place of Xian Zeng, taking turns to persuade wine. I don't know how much wine I drank in the collision of singing and wine bowls. Alcohol is so exciting that I can't speak. I'm just smiling with a wine bowl. Finally, I couldn't even hold the bowl, and I vaguely felt that I was helped to the thick carpet next to me and fell asleep.

Wine is really a sharp weapon against the cold. At night, although I can vaguely hear the sound of cattle and sheep and people drinking, my eyelids are heavy and I just can't wake up. The next morning, I was awakened by the sound of knocking on the tent in my sleep. When I opened my eyes, I found that I was alone in the tent. I quickly got dressed and looked out of the tent. It turned out that Zhuge was cleaning the snow on the roof. Qinghai, Anima is soaring, and the weather is like a child's face. If the snow is not cleared, it will flood the tent.

Back to the tent, Zhuge handed a cup of hot milk tea. I chatted with her over a drink and asked her what happened last night. "A few wolves down the mountain to rob the sheep. Fortunately, they found it early and drove it for a long time with a stick. " Zhuge has a calm and clear atmosphere and doesn't care about a few wolves at all. Later, I learned that although wild wolves often haunt the snow-capped mountains, they generally do not harass herders. It's just that there is heavy snow, and they are forced to survive. When they really can't find food, they only think about the herdsmen's sheep. Zhuge is only in her thirties, but years of hard work make her look much older than her actual age. Every day before dawn, she goes to the glacier a mile away to carry the melted ice water back, then milks, makes a fire and burns milk tea. When the problem of food and clothing is solved, they don't care about the hard work and the bad living environment, and the family is always happy.

After drinking milk tea, I accidentally turned out my account. I froze. It snows heavily! It's all white, and I can't tell which is the sky and which is the earth. Cattle and sheep were buried in the snow. Add a driver first to untie the cattle and sheep. Before leaving, please help me put on my winter clothes and snow hat, and especially ask me to wear sunglasses to prevent snow blindness. I wrapped up the photographic equipment and put it in the camera bag, covered it with tarpaulin, first put the bag on my shoulder, walked out of the tent, coaxed up the cattle and sheep, and began a day of grazing.

Xian Zeng and his eldest son are driving more than 400 sheep and 100 yak on the road. The color of the sheep mixed with the white between heaven and earth makes my eyes dizzy. In addition to my coat, I added a down vest, and I was shivering with cold. The destroyer Xuefeng mixed with snow particles and hit him in the face, which was very painful. Xian Zeng, like last night, only wore a Tibetan robe, laughing and laughing. I walked with one foot deep and one foot shallow, and I don't know when my boots were wet by the snow. First, seeing that I walked too hard, I pulled a yak for me to ride, but riding on the back of a yak may not be comfortable. I wondered in my heart: What can cattle and sheep eat in snowy days?

I am slowly feeling the life scene of a family in the snow. Have people living in the city ever seen such a ranch? At this time, he came up to me and interrupted my reverie, reminding me to wear sunglasses to prevent snow blindness. But I was born excited. I took pictures and forgot everything. I don't know when my glasses disappeared. First stop the cattle and sheep and take me back to find my glasses. For more than half an hour, I can't find my glasses. First, I leaned over to comfort me and said, "It's hard to find in the snow. If the snow melts on a sunny day, I'm sure I can find it. " While speaking, he took off his sunglasses and put them on me, and then took out a piece of white gauze from his Tibetan robe to cover his eyes.

The snow is getting smaller and smaller. When the whistle was added first, the cattle and sheep suddenly stopped and pushed the snow away with their mouths. The wet grass exposed on the ground became their delicacy. Animals on the plateau have their own ability to adapt to nature. June, July and August of each year are the most lush seasons for pasture growth on the plateau, and also the busiest time for herders. Herdsmen drive their cattle and sheep from the mountain (low altitude) to the mountain (high altitude) step by step, and move from one hill to another to find the greenest grassland. By the end of August and the beginning of September, the temperature on the mountain dropped, the grass turned yellow and withered, and the herdsmen drove the cattle and sheep from the mountain to the mountain. They repeat the nomadic life year after year, so their home is also called "riding on the back of yak". The first generation of ancestors have also been thriving in Xuefeng grassland.

Kenzeng speaks Chinese very well. In addition to grazing, he occasionally acts as a guide for mountaineering teams at home and abroad. After grazing, he often tells me the legends and Tibetan customs here. In my opinion, their life is monotonous and hard, but they are very satisfied. It is said that once a Tibetan woman married a Suzhou man and was taken to the city, but after a month, the woman came back. She can't adapt to city life at all, and she is bored, but she misses the snow-capped mountains and grasslands.

It's about the time when the sun goes down and grazing is over. I was so cold that I couldn't bear to rush into the tent, take off my wet shoes and bake them by the fire. Inadvertently found that the first increase was not very good-looking, and I was puzzled, so I had to ask Zhuo Ma quietly. I only know that Tibetans, out of reverence for the holy mountain, think that baking shoes by the fire pond will give off a stench and blaspheme. I was taken aback and quickly apologized to Xian Zeng. If I didn't know, I wouldn't feel guilty, and he would be relieved immediately.

After grazing outside 10 hours, we didn't eat anything. Because we often move on the grassland, I am used to eating two meals on the grassland. Those dairy products, beef and mutton, and fried noodles are all hungry.

Go deep into the glacier hinterland

On the fourth day, the snow stopped and it was a fine day. The sky is particularly blue, and the snow on the ground has melted, revealing green grass (green grass is only a relative concept in alpine pasture). The outline of the distant mountain peak is clear, which is quite different from the scene of the previous three days.

With a happy mood, we rode horses and set out for the hinterland of the glacier where the lamas worshipped Buddha.

The horses ran happily, and soon, we broke into a stone group area-the upright boulder extended all the way to the side of the mountain, which was completely inaccessible. There was a magnificent sound of running water in my ear, but I looked around at the world of ice and snow. I listened carefully and quietly, only to find that the sound of running water turned out to be the sound of underground ice movement or undercurrent in snow.

"Snow lotus! Xuelian! " Snow lotus with yellow petals was exposed between the rocks, and we cried with joy. In this extremely cold world, the fragrance is refreshing.

We crossed a glacier, climbed a steep cliff, got into an ice cave 7 or 8 meters high and looked out. One by one, the ice hung on the holes and hung down from the floor, forming a natural ice curtain. Through the ice curtain, we can see the clear blue sky, and the sunshine turns the ice curtain into colorful colors. This is also the place where Zhuge takes water every day. Coming out of the ice cave and passing through an ice crack, a "natural ice sculpture painting" suddenly appeared in front of us. The shapes of ice sculptures are various: the towering ice tower goes straight into the blue sky, and there are crystal peaks connected with clouds. It is said that the old glaciers have not melted for many years, and new glaciers have formed. The glacier I see now is just the tip of the iceberg of Anima Green Glacier. Many well-known mountaineers at home and abroad sleep here in order to discover the beauty of glaciers in Anima or climb Maqinggang Day.

We had a good time on the ice cliff, but we were out of breath. Suddenly, we saw a Tibetan walking alone to the mountain. He walked past us with a serious expression without looking at us. I heard that he was a believer who went to the alpine glaciers to worship the mountain gods, and I suddenly understood the heartfelt beliefs of Tibetans.