Living in a place where China top three rivers originate, people of the Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Qinghai Province of Northwest China prefer to call their home “China Water Tower.” The three rivers include the Yangtze, Yellow, and Lancang, which is known as Mekong and “The Oriental Danube” after it flows out of China.

While the three rivers benefit a total of more than 700 million people in China and Southeast Asia and have nurtured their civilizations since ancient times, little is known about those who live in these rivers” source areas on he roof of the world.” To quite a few outsiders, this “Water Tower” of China in the southern part of Qinghai is somewhat formidable. In old days, it took a horse rider 21 days to reach its center Jiegu Town from Xining, the provincial capital of Qinghai, and 76 days from Lhasa, capital of Tibet Autonomous Region.

Today, a highway built along the ancient trade road between the Tang Dynasty (618-907) and Tibet, through which Princess Wencheng of Tang entered Tibet to marry its king in 641, shortens the journey between Xining and Yushu to 13-16 hour car ride. Still nearly half of the highway is unpaved and rough, and at an elevation of 3,000 to 4,000 meters above sea level.

Some people may fall sick before they reach Yushu. Once they get there, they have to pluck up to cope with its high altitude--averaging 4,000-5,000 meters above sea level, thin air ith an oxygen content half or two-thirds of that at the sea level, and long cold season--which may last seven or eight months a year. In fact there are only two seasons in Yushu: cold and warm. Even in warm season people cannot do without jackets or gowns. And to date the prefecture has yet to build a hotel offering rooms with private toilets and modern bath or shower facilities. Then snowstorms hit the prefecture almost every year, devastating livestock, properties and even human lives.

Despite all the unfavorable conditions, local Tibetans take pride in this land. Wang Dongmei, daughter of a Han father and a Tibetan mother, identifies herself as Tibetan regardless of her very Han Chinese name. She chose to return to Yushu upon graduation from the Qinghai Institute of Ethnic Studies in Xining ten years ago, although she had opportunities to remain in the provincial capital.

“My (maternal) grandma and parents wanted me to be with them at Yushu, and I could not tear myself away from my folks here,” says the 31-year-old lady who is in charge of the information flow at the prefecture government. “I also love my hometown, which is so picturesque with green mountains, clear waters and the azure sky.” Picturesque it is indeed. Numerous streams flow into the three rivers in their source areas, forming hydrographic nets covering most part of Yushu 197,000 square kilometers, more than double the size of Austria. The variation of rivers and lakes, snow-capped mountains, steep gorges, grassy prairies and even gobi deserts produce magnificent landscapes.
　　　　　
A grandmother and a mother are dressing a young Tibetan girl up for the festival of horse racing, the most colorful event of the year at Yushu.

Wang and other locals also take pride in being Khamba, a special group of Tibetans who are reputed as the fiercest fighters, shrewdest merchants and most generous friends among the ethnic minority. Yushu, with about 90 percent of its population of 250,000 being Tibetan, is one of the four Khamba Tibetan prefectures in China, along with Ganzi in Sichuan, Diqing in Yunnan and Qamdo in Tibet.

“Unlike people in many other parts of the country who demand lots of dowries for marrying their daughters off, we Khambas marry our daughters for nothing,” Wang says. “But once the daughter is married, her husband would pour all his fortune on her.”

That is to say, he would decorate her with jewelry, gold and silver from head to feet. Normally, a Khamba woman in Yushu would wear a big red coral or yellow amber pearl on top of her head, to be followed linearly by another two, four or six stones in different colors beneath, against an embroidery drapery. Some women may have their hair entirely covered with amber pearls. Her earrings, necklaces and bracelets are exquisitely made of gold, silver, jade, ivory or turquoise. Around her waist is a silk girdle, plus two “kazhas” or copper belts inlaid with rows of golden and silver nails in addition to three coral or turquoise pearls in the middle. Hung on the belt are a Tibetan knife and pendent.
　　　　　
People of Nanqen are known as the best dancers of Yushu Tibet Autonomous Prefecture of Qinghai Province.

Formally dressed, a Khamba woman can wear jewelry worth several hundred thousand yuan, or even a million yuan. “Tibetans here never attempt to cover up their wealth,” observes Liang Qin, a writer who has lived in Yushu for more than ten years and has published a book about local customs. In fact, four of the six counties under the prefecture jurisdiction are state designated poor counties, where average per capita income is yet to hit China poverty line of 800 yuan (barely US$100) a year, so the locals may not have much left after their decorations. As Liang puts it, “They would spend most of their earnings to decorate themselves all over, and show it off.” One good occasion on which they show off their wealth is the Horse Racing Festival, an annual event that coincides with the anniversary of the founding of the prefecture in late July. Starting on July 25, the festival will last about a week, when all the government institutions and enterprises in the prefecture would be closed or shorten business hours for this special holiday. People from various parts of Yushu will gather at the Zhaxike Grassland 10 kilometers to the west of Jiegu Town, and camp there.

“Some families may have their tents installed 15 days before the event begins, just to occupy a favorable place,” says Liang Qin. “During the festival season, some 2,000 tents may mushroom on the grassland.” In addition, busses, trucks, and other vehicles carry 25,000 people daily from Jiegu Town to Zhaxike.

The festival, very much like a carnival, is counted the most important event on local Tibetans calendar, according to Wang Dongmei. “The Tibetan New Year is also important, but since it falls in the coldest time of the year, people are confined indoors,” she says. “But the Horse Racing Festival takes place in the best season here and it is different.” Those who camp on the grassland would have TV sets, video players, computer games and Hi-Fis installed in their tents, so they could enjoy themselves while camping away from home. And they have many outdoor events to attend here are horse racing, yak racing, horsemanship performances, basket-ball games, tug-of-war contests, fairs, and so on, with the program varying from day to day.
　　　　　
Yak racing at the festival is the most exciting event.

If the horse racing is breath-taking, the yak racing is amusing. Some disobedient yaks may stop in the middle of the track, refusing to move forward or even stepping back, others may keep going astray, heading towards the audience, despite the riders’ curses.

Traditional religious dances performed by Buddhist monks from various monasteries are especially popular among the elder. Wang Dongmei 81-year-old grandma, a pious believer, would come to the event whenever there is a religious dance performance. “We would find a seat for her and she can sit there watching for hours,” Wang says.

Among all the events, the most popular is the dance contest of participating counties and government institutions. Due to transportation difficulties and limited resources, the six counties would come in rotation to the contest, three each year. But on some special occasion, as when the prefecture celebrated its 40th founding anniversary in 1991, all the six counties would be present.

Competing in the main venue of the fair, a spacious grass square about the size of a football ground, are all group dances. Each participating team would have some 100 male and female dancers perform traditional folk dances for a half day, who will compete for gracefulness of movements and variations of formations.
　　　　　
Two Khamba Tibetan girls are waiting for their turn to perform at Yushu horse racing festival.

“These square folk dances are characterized in that the performers are highly self-entertaining and devoted, rather than those in stage dances who just perform for others,” says Wang Dongmei. “Our lads appear particularly agile and fierce in their dances, while our girls genial and tender.” Their dances are so inspiring that Yingzhu Jiacuo, a three-year-old girl, could not help standing up to imitate their movements to the beat while watching them. “Our people learn to dance as they begin to toddle, and learn to sing as they babble their first sounds,” says Wang proudly.

The recognized best dancers are from Nangqen County, about 200 kilometers to the south of Jiegu. “For many centuries Nangqen was the political and economic center of Yushu area,” says Buzhou, deputy director of the poverty-relief office of the county, who is the director, choreographer and conductor of the county dance team all at once. “So our dance movements are distinguished from other parts of Yushu as more refined and graceful, and our dances more diversified in styles.”

Personally, the 37-year-old official-artist prefers the styles of “Reba,” “Reyi” and “Yi.” Literally meaning “Roaming artists,” Reba features enthusiastic movements such as jumping and kicking, somersaults, and swirling, which all emphasize skills of individual dancers. Yi is referred to dancing to the instrumental and vocal musical accompaniment and features variations of formations from circle--symbolizing the sun, semicircle--the moon, to other shapes. Reyi, a combination of the two, contains movements imitating those of birds and beasts.

“I favor these three styles because they best represent the Khamba nature that is bold and freewheeling, and they feature diversity,” says Buzhou. “But in the past we could not afford Yi although we were fond of it. Now that we are better off, we are able to entertain ourselves with the dance style.”

Among the dancers in his team are government officials and herdsmen. “The county only purchased the long-sleeve shirts and blouses and colorful trousers for them,” he says. “The Tibetan gowns and boots are their own.”

Although Nangqen is a poor county, Buzhou says the local people “love singing and dancing,” which has become “part of our tradition.” Singing and dancing, he says philosophically, “do not necessarily belong to the rich people. In the past our people would sing and dance even they were starving.”

Buzhou wife, a clerk with the county culture bureau, used to learn dancing with him. His two sons are both members of dance group in their primary school. The family is just typical of local Khambas.

“They are born optimists,” says Harvey Solomon, a visiting American writer. Perhaps this optimism is essential for the people to survive in an extremely unfavorable environment.

Buzhou dream is to have the team perform his favorite Khamba dances in the Tiananmen Square in Beijing one day.

The author is from China Features.