Portrait of an LBX

A yak herder waves his lasso and yelps to move a group of yaks down the hill and to the grasslands in the background.

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By Evan

I said we’d go looking for Tibetan shenanigans in that last post, and boy, did we find them! We’ve seen and done so much in the last few days, I’ll do my best to redact and break up details. By the way, all the Tibetan names below have been changed and no pictures are included… just in case.

So out of Shuajingsi (刷經寺), we climbed and climbed all morning until we hit 4345 m (14,255 feet) and descended miraculously into the wide open grassland. Immediately we came across herds of yaks, nomadic tent clusters, and huge mastiffs — sure signs that we had entered the Tibetan regions. If the yaks weren’t enough to confirm this, the massive military presence sealed the deal. Behind the tourist trap tent city where we had our first real Tibetan meal was an encampment of hundreds of military tents, dozens of howitzers stationed on the road, and all other manner of malevolent machinery.

Thankfully though we were too lost in the scenery to care much about politics for awhile. These landscapes up in northern Sichuan are like something from another world, endless rolling hills of green sprinkled with yellow and purple flowers like the world’s biggest king cake, skies bluer than the deep ocean, and more clouds in every direction than I could even see in a dream. The place makes Yellowstone look like the Jersey Turnpike! It has also been refreshing, to say the least, to take in deep cycling breaths in some of the world’s cleanest (if thin) air, all the more striking due its proximity to some of the world’s dirtiest air. (more…)

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• TONS of new pics up from Andy http://is.gd/dOmK6 and Evan http://is.gd/dOmLE #
• 旅馆老板：你们参观了我们这里的寺院吗？我：要买门票吗？老板：要，十块钱。我：那我就不去。老板：可是这个是藏族的寺院！ #
• 藏族老母亲：路上藏獒很危险，你们拿这个过去（给我们两根大木棍）。我：它们真的会咬人吗？母亲：看你们打得好不好。 #

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Storms seem to come once day here on the Tibetan Plateau, and they can be seen dozens of kilometers in the distance. Sometimes we can outrun them, and sometimes we can't. This time the storm approached after we had already set up camp. Fortunately, beautiful sunsets come once a day too!

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A Tibetan yak herder gestures while telling us about the anti-Chinese protests in his town in 2008, part of a larger series of protests and rioting across Tibet and Tibetan areas in Sichuan that took place in the lead-up to the Olympics. He was jailed for 20 days for his part in the protests, while others we met had been imprisoned for as long as a year. The large army presence in this area is evidence of how closely Tibetans and their religion are monitored and restricted in China.

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This Tibetan boy is spending the night on the grasslands with his grandfather, who is living in a tent there for two weeks tending to the community yaks. The boy usually lives with his mother in a village ten kilometers away. He understands no Mandarin Chinese, which he won't start studying until he begins school at six years old.

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Evan passes a lowland Tibetan village at a bit over 3,000m (~10,000ft) as we climb onto the Tibetan Plateau. Every single road is torn up in this area for hundreds of kilometers, so we are constantly either sucking dust or battling the mud.

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• And we're up on the Tibetan Plateau! 3,500+ meters and moving onto the grasslands! #
• Crossed a pass at 4,245m (14,255ft). Now it's all yaks, mastiffs and Tibetans! Definitely in the middle of nowhere now though. #
• Just had an amazing night with a bunch of Tibetan yak herders in a big ol' tent. Dinner of yak meat and peppers cooked on yak paddy stove. #

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A group of men gather outside a newly reconstructed home in the earthquake-stricken area north of Chengdu. In contrast to entire towns that are being reconstructed, cookie-cutter-style, by state-owned construction companies from faraway places like Hunan and Guangdong, many of the individually reconstructed homes feature traditional styles as well as intricate woodwork and colorful designs.

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• 我（手拿着一袋刚采过的野生菌）：能不能帮我加工？厨师：没问题，跟什么肉炒？我：我不吃肉，请素炒。厨师：吃野生菌不吃肉就会吐！ #

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