Progress Hems In Nomadic Herders of Tibet

Yaks and sheep roamed free in lush pastures more than two miles high. As the chill of winter neared, nomadic herders moved the animals into the valleys through mountain passes festooned with colorful prayer flags.

These days, barbed-wire fences surround the beasts, and a yak sperm bank has opened for business.

A far-reaching policy designed to protect grasslands and improve the nomads' livelihoods is bringing rapid change to Damshung, a county of pastures in the foothills of the snowcapped Thangla mountains.

"I'm not a big believer in 'zoo culture,' " said Melvyn Goldstein, a Tibet expert at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. "I don't believe that Tibetan nomads should be the same as they were in 1959 any more than farmers in Ohio should be the way they were in 1900."

But the economic development initiative, launched by the Beijing government a decade ago in other range-land areas of China and about a year ago in parts of Tibet, has raised serious questions about what is best for Tibet's unique culture and natural environment.

Many pro-independence Tibetans see the policy, which uses technology and improved infrastructure to encourage a shift from subsistence herding to industrial livestock production, not only as bad for the environment but also as an assault on the foundation of Tibetan identity and culture.

"The nomadic instinct to move from one place to another is in our psychology and culture," said Thubten Samphel, a spokesman for the Tibetan government in exile in Dharamsala, India. "This mobility is indicative of the freedom of the open spaces of Tibet."

China and Tibet maintained complex relations for centuries, but in 1950, the new Communist government in Beijing sent troops into Tibet and claimed sovereignty over the region. After an abortive uprising, Tibet's traditional government, headed by the Dalai Lama, fled into exile in 1959.

Chinese officials blame the nomads' "unscientific" herding methods for a degradation of the grasslands that make up 70% of Tibet. Grass yields per unit of land are down, they argue, noxious weeds are replacing usable grasses, and soil erosion is spreading.

Critics of the government also see degradation, but instead blame official policies and mismanagement.