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Kham
& Khampas |
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More than 800,000 Tibetans
live in west of Sichuan province which includes a good fraction of the
Tibetan plateau, and one-eighth
of them live in northwestern Yunnan. Sichuan's
Tibetans are nothing like the rice-growing Chinese who till the
province's sweltering eastern half; but they have everything in common
with their neighbors in Tibet Autonomous Region. Their high, sweeping
homeland is known as Kham, and its people are called Khampas.
Khampas reputation for mayhem spreading all
over the Himalaya. They made a fearsome impression on outsiders, like
Michel Peissel, an anthropologist who met them in 1964: "[The]
Khampas stood a good six feet in height,... wore great heavy boots and
flowing khaki robes that flapped like whips as they walked, advancing
with their feet slightly apart as if to trample the grass to
extinction....Unlike Tibetans of Lhasa, their features were not
Mongoloid, but straight, with large fierce eyes set beside beak- like
noses, and long hair braided and wound around their heads, giving them a
primitive allure."
When Khampas strayed outside their homeland they were held in awe and
fear; but Aten, a native of Kham, relates another side of his people:
"My mother was a very religious woman. When she worked, she
constantly murmured prayers, and she gave generously to every beggar and
pilgrim who came to our door. I remember those cold, dark winter nights
when wolves howled mournfully in the snow. I would wake up in great fear
and, crying, would rush to my mother's bed. It was considered to be very
unlucky to hear a wolf's howl and my mother would solemnly say, 'throw
dust in the wolf's mouth and strike a peg in his eye.' This incantation
was supposed to ward off bad luck."
In these two contrasting images--one a fierce warrior, the other a
generous, devout parent--lies Kham's essential paradox. To be sure,
nowadays banditry has been all but eliminated. Yet the proud Khampa
spirit remains, and their rugged land still defies outsiders. Those who
surmount Kham's barriers are rewarded by a mountain paradise virtually
untouched by the outside world.
Your journey to Kham begins in the Sichuan capital of Chengdu.
Proceeding west across fertile farmland, you soon reach Ya'an, a
tea-growing center. Tea is Tibet's favorite beverage, and Ya'an was the
start of an ancient trade route that carried it to the high plateau.
Nowadays that caravan trail is a ribbon of smooth concrete, but sixty
years ago was quite another story.
They speak various dialects that can be roughly divided
into two main groups: valley and nomad. Their speech is vastly different
from that used in Lhasa, the so-called Tibetan language. Khampas speak
quickly, loudly, and bluntly while Lhasans speak softly and politely,
using an honorific for each word.
Most Khampa men, especially nomads, have long hair braided with red yarn
and tied up around their heads. They wear rings with big stones, and
often decorate their hair with ornaments. They love riding horses, and
almost always carry silver-sheathed daggers dangling from their waists.
Like Buddhists from other parts of Tibet, Khampas are highly devout.
Some bid farewell to their families and prostrate themselves all the way
to the Jokhang Monastery in Lhasa or even to Mount Kailash in western
Tibet, a journey that may take years or even a lifetime. They believe
this act will generate the necessary merit for a better rebirth. A
number of famous reincarnated lamas who live in the West, such as
Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche and Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, are Khampas, and
this makes Khampas even prouder of their homeland.
Kham comprises the lustrous highlands of eastern Tibet with alpine
forests, grassland, lakes and meadows. Cut by deep gorges of the Yangtse,
Yalung, Mekong, and Salween, all flowing in parallel from North to
South, and surrounded by snow-capped mountains, it is known as the land
of four rivers and six ranges.
The important towns include Chamdo, Shiqu, Dege, Ganze, Kangding, Batang,
Litang, and Markham, as well as Deqing and Zhongdian in Yunnan. Khampa
farmers-roughly 70% of the population-grow barley, wheat, potatoes and,
at low altitudes, corn, and tend yaks, sheep, and goats. In summer they
live with their animals on the alps. They also dig mushrooms and herbal
roots and transport them by yak to sell in town. Pastoral nomads,
particularly in Litang, at an altitude of 4,014 metres, live in black
tents made of yak hair.
Khampas (men of Kham) consider themselves handsome, and take great care
with their appearance. They are generally taller than other Tibetans
(and Chinese), and tend to have straighter noses, although there are
many execptions. Khampas are infallibly identified by their trademark
red tassels. This man wears a single earring made of turquoise, which is
especially popular as personal adornment in the Dege region.
Kham is colourful in summer, when slopes are often covered with
rhododendron and other wildflowers. Summer is when Khampas, dressed in
their best clothes, hold picnics, sing and dance, and watch
horse-racing. |
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