This article is from WeChat official account:Authentic style (ID: dialaofengwu), author: Oba, head Figure from: vision China
Zabye Chaka, one of the world’s three largest lithium salt lakes, is like a palette on the wasteland. Photography/Ma Chunlin
Speaking of Fengwujun:
I am the pinnacle of the world
I am the most colorful Tibet
“Let the Yarlung Zangbo River cleanse my heart and awaken my soul on the top of the snow-capped mountains.”
The song is about Lhasa, but the place where “Yarlung Zangbo River” and “Top of Snow Mountain” really meet is Shigatse, 270 kilometers west of Lhasa.
If you have never been to Tibet, please come to Xigaze, she is more three-dimensional and more colorful than the Tibet you remember.
If you have ever been to Tibet, please come to Shigatse, she is more peaceful and broader than Lhasa where you have played.
She is big enough: and bigger than many provinces in the east. Xigaze has jurisdiction over an area of 182,000 square kilometers, roughly the size of Guangdong Province, and about the size of 11 Beijing.
Shigatse, the city with Mount Everest as its back garden. Drawing/Paprika
She is tall enough: and the tallest in the world. If Tibet is the world closest to heaven, then Xigaze is the link between the world and heaven. Because the world’s highest peak Mount Everest is here.
She is dazzling enough: here are not only the typical sacred mountains and holy lakes in Tibet, but also the all-encompassing landforms. From the forested snow peaks to the verdant valleys, the drop is more than 8,000 meters. Snow mountains, glaciers, forests, meadows, and river valleys turn this into the most three-dimensional geomorphological museum in China.
Look at the Ningjingang Sang Snow Mountain from the Yamdrok Lake. Photography/Zhou Yan
She is curious enough: on the cold, dry and cold stage of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, there are warm areas with river valleys crisscrossing. The Nianchu River Valley and many valleys in the granary are “warm and wet corridors” hidden in the alpine zone.
Yadong River Valley, commonly known as “Yadonggou” by the locals, is surrounded by subtropical vegetation. Photography/Hu Shu
1. Both “high cold” and “warm and wet”
On the topographic map of Shigatse, we can clearly see two northwest-southeast bulges: Gangdise and Himalayas. As the backbone supporting Shigatse, their average elevation is over 6000 meters!
The Himalayas are the highest mountain ranges in the world. Shigatse occupies the highest middle section. There are 14 peaks above 8,000 meters above sea level in the world, and Shigatse occupies 5 of them. In Tingri County on the northwest slope of Mount Everest, with fine weather and a suitable angle, you can see the world’s first (Mount Everest), The fourth (Lhotse), the fifth (Makalu) The spectacle of the peak in the same frame.
There are also 14 peaks with an altitude of more than 7000 meters, and mountains with an altitude of 6000 meters + can be seen almost everywhere. Snowy peaks stretch, glaciers overhang like waterfalls, and ice towers like forests-dozens of extremely high mountains “gather together”, I am afraid this is the only place in the world.
Shigatse, the “party headquarters” of the world-class peak.Drawing/Zhang Baohua
The melting of glaciers and snowy mountains always accumulates water in the depressions, so there are more than 70 jewel-like lakes: In the northwest of Xigaze, there are Angla Rencuo, Rinchen Hubucuo, Taruocuo and Zabuye. In Chaka and Palong Co, the Central and Eastern areas are scattered with Xu Rucuo, Dajia Mi, Peiku Co, Duobuzha Mi, Duoqing Mis…
Zonggecuo, a glacial barrier lake under Ama Zhimi Snow Mountain in Dingjie County. Photography/Ma Chunlin
“High” will inevitably lead to “cold”-there is no summer in most areas of Xigaze, basically long winter without summer, spring and autumn are connected, and mountainous areas above 5000 meters above sea level are “winter all year round”, an extreme historical record The low temperature reached -46.4°C.
Are there gods living in the iceberg covered with clouds? Photography/Liu Shuyi
Under the background of “high cold”, Xigaze also has a “warm and wet” zone.
Between the two columns of mountains is the Yarlung Zangbo River, the largest river in Tibet. This 2,840-kilometer river is the sixth largest river in my country. Its drainage area is only one-fifth of Tibet, but it has nurtured the four major towns of Shigatse, Lhasa, Shannan, and Nyingchi as well as the most densely populated area in the region. From the source to the middle reaches of the river, the main river section flows in Xigaze.
In Zhongba County, the Jemayangzong Glacier at an altitude of 5590 meters, the first drop of water from the Yarlung Zangbo River flows out.
Jemayangzong Glacier and Moraine Lake at the foot of the mountain. Photography/Xiong Ke
If it weren’t at the scene, no one would believe that the Yarlung Zangbo River, which has more than twice the water volume of the Yellow River, has its source covered in yellow sand. Looking up, under the blue sky and snow-capped mountains, crescent-shaped sand dunes one after another, the slender rivers are divided into scattered ropes by the sand, because they resemble a girl’s braid, geomorphologists call it a “braided water system.”
The source of the Yarlung Zangbo River is called Ma Quanhe, which is transliterated as “Dangke Zangbu”. Photography/Zhou Yan
The sand dunes of Zhongba will show different colors in the surrounding scenery and the changes of light and shadow: when the sun rises in the east or the sunset goes down, the red mountains, sparkling water, bright snow, golden sunlight… Rendering, dyeing the originally monotonous sand dunes into a “colorful desert”.
Snow mountains, glaciers, rivers, wetlands, deserts, these seemingly impossible scenery to appear at the same time are magically intertwined.
Faced with the chase and interception of the yellow sand, the river did not retreat and flowed resolutely to the middle and lower reaches. The places where the Yarlung Zangbo River and its tributaries pass have created the most dazzling towns in Tibet: Zhongba, Saga, Latse, Xigaze, Gyangze, Zetang, Lhasa…
The rushing Yarlung Zangbo River has an annual runoff that is more than twice that of the Yellow River. Photography/Liu Shuyi
Perhaps it was infected by a big river. Rivers such as Pengqu, Boqu, Geelong Zangbo, and Yadong River are also fearless and dangerous. They have “cut” the Himalayas from north to south, forming several north-south lines. V” shaped river valley.
Don’t underestimate these long and narrow valleys. They introduced the warm and humid air of the Indian Ocean into Shigatse, opening up long and narrow warm and humid areas on the cold and dry land. The deepest part of the valley is only a few hundred meters above sea level, and the towering cliffs and snow-capped mountains rise up. The drop from 8,000 meters to less than 1,000 meters above sea level creates an extremely rich vertical landscape belt.
Geelong River Valley-looking up at the snow-capped mountains, looking down at the forest. Photography/Ma Chunlin
The amount of precipitation and species of animals and plants in the ditch are comparable to those of Zhejiang and Fujian along the southeast coast. In the southern valleys of Geelong, Nyalam, Tingri, Dingjie, Yadong and other counties, within a day and every inch, you can enjoy the subtropical, temperate, and frigid scenery at the same time, and experience spring, summer, autumn and winter. Switch between different modes.
2. The best manor, the biggest granary
“IHis hometown is in Xigaze, where there is a beautiful river… The blue sky is full of white clouds, and the beautiful river is full of clear waves. “
Han Hong’s “Hometown” sings the richness of Shigatse with concise lyrics, which also corresponds to the Tibetan meaning of “Shigatse”, “the richest manor.”
The “beautiful river” refers to the Nianchu River, an important tributary of the Yarlung Zangbo River, which is the mother river of Xigaze.
Xigaze City and the Nianchu River in the distance. Photography/Cui Shixin
People who are unfamiliar with Tibetan culture must not know: The “Tibet” of Tibet and the Tibetan people we are talking about today did not refer to the Tibet Autonomous Region and the vast Tibetan areas, but a special name for Xigaze.
In the 7th century AD, after Songtsen Gampo established the Tubo regime, the central area under its jurisdiction was divided into two major parts, Wei and Tibet, according to geographical conditions. Among them, the “Tibet” area with Xigaze as the center is divided into “Ye Ru” and “Rula”.
“The terrain of Nianmai is like an eight-petal lotus, and the Nianchu River in the east is clear like nectar.” Drawing/Zhang Baohua
Before the name “Tibet”, Xigaze was called “Nianmai”. In Tibetan traditional culture, the source of the Nianchu River is Ningjingangsang(Also translated as Nuojin Kangsang) Snow Mountain, as described in “Hou Zang Zhi”, Nianchu River is sourced from snow mountain, which is divided into upper reaches “Niandui”, middle reaches “Nianpa”, and lower reaches “Nianmai”. Among them, “Nianmai” is the valley area where the Nianchu River merges into the Yarlung Zangbo River, which is the area around Kaze today.
There are two kinds of rivers in Tibetan—the big one is called “Tibetan cloth” and the small one is called “qu”. “Nianchu” is actually “Nianqu”. “Nian” used to be an ancient local tribe, which means “delicious” in Tibetan. The combination of “Nianchu” or “Nianqu” is “delicious water”.
Today Tibet’s industry and agriculture are concentrated on “one river and two rivers”: one river is the main stream of the Yarlung Zangbo River, and the two rivers are the Lhasa River and the Nianchu River. Among the three, Nianchu River has the shortest flow and the smallest water volume, but it has become the largest granary in Tibet.
The golden barley has turned the river valley into an oil painting. Photography/ Jiang Xi
In the eyes of many people, the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is full of snow-capped mountains and frozen soil. How can there be vast fields? Coming to the Nianchu River Valley, this impression will be completely overturned!
The 217-kilometer Nianchu River reaches its middle and lower reaches and becomes very wide. During the geological period, the valley was first formed by structural faults, and the melted ice and snow of the Himalayas continuously scoured and transported the surrounding soil, forming fertile fields in the valley.
Compared with the Lhasa River and the Yarlung Zangbo River, the Nianchu River is closer to the Himalayas. Its flow direction allows a small amount of airflow in the valley, and the annual precipitation reaches far more than the surrounding 304-431 mm. Relatively abundant water and solar radiation of up to 7,700 MJ/m2, crops are rich in energy for photosynthesis.