Tibetan Plateau

They arrive on foot each Sunday, some walking as long as an hour. They come through the doorway in silence, then kneel, heads bowed, hands folded. Their prayers to Jesus echo off the cold stone walls; pictures of the Blessed Virgin gaze down from the church's pillars; the altar shimmers in the candlelight. It's a tableau of piety and reverence familiar around the world. But the thin, high-altitude sunlight that filters through the windows also reveals the unexpected.

BEIJING - In the last three months, two of Thinlay Gyatso's relatives have set themselves on fire in protest against Chinese rule, and the 31-year-old Tibetan academic is still sorting out his conflicted emotions over their suicides. If any of them had confided their plans, he said, he would have tried to stop them. "From the beginning, I said this was not a good thing to burn yourself," he said. On the other hand, he acknowledged a swell of pride in his relatives - one of them a 26-year-old mother of two young children who was his second cousin, the other an uncle who was in his 50s. "People respect the ones who have immolated themselves.

Re "China Loan a Threat to Tibet," editorial, June 28: This World Bank project is one of many of China's poverty-alleviation programs throughout the country, where there are still some 40 million people living below the poverty line. The relocation of the population is totally on a voluntary basis. This project will provide significant health, education, employment and farming benefits to people in remote and inaccessible villages who now have incomes between about $25 and $60 a year.

If you want to see a glacier melt with your bare eyes, try Yulong Snow Mountain, an 18,000-foot peak in southern China's Yunnan province. On this early December morning, the mountain is etched against the technicolor sky in shades of gray -- definitely more gray than white. Naked boulders of limestone and daubs of shrubbery protrude from the shallow snow cover. At a scenic overlook on the way up, tourists leave their woolly hats in the tour bus when they hop out to take photographs.

To say that Tibet was "annexed" by China in 1951 is a little bit like saying folks in Ethiopia had a dietary deficiency in 1992 ("Tibet Film May Derail Disney's Efforts to Expand Into China," Nov. 23). China's "annexation" was a full-on military invasion. Since that time, 1.2 million Tibetans (including hundreds of thousands of Buddhist monks and nuns) have died as a direct result of execution, imprisonment, torture and starvation. Over 6,000 monasteries and nunneries were deliberately destroyed (only 10 to 13 remain)

BEIJING - In the last three months, two of Thinlay Gyatso's relatives have set themselves on fire in protest against Chinese rule, and the 31-year-old Tibetan academic is still sorting out his conflicted emotions over their suicides. If any of them had confided their plans, he said, he would have tried to stop them. "From the beginning, I said this was not a good thing to burn yourself," he said. On the other hand, he acknowledged a swell of pride in his relatives - one of them a 26-year-old mother of two young children who was his second cousin, the other an uncle who was in his 50s. "People respect the ones who have immolated themselves.

If you want to see a glacier melt with your bare eyes, try Yulong Snow Mountain, an 18,000-foot peak in southern China's Yunnan province. On this early December morning, the mountain is etched against the technicolor sky in shades of gray -- definitely more gray than white. Naked boulders of limestone and daubs of shrubbery protrude from the shallow snow cover. At a scenic overlook on the way up, tourists leave their woolly hats in the tour bus when they hop out to take photographs.

Kekexili is more than one of the most remote and starkly beautiful locations on Earth. It's a place with a spirit of its own, a spirit that's been infused into the strong and gritty Chinese import "Mountain Patrol: Kekexili." About four miles high on the Tibetan plateau, Kekexili is so remote and inhospitable, someone says, that "each step you take might be the first human footprints since the world began."

A cold, wind-swept plain in Tibet populated with scores of birds, plants and animals found nowhere else on Earth has been proposed as the world's largest nature reserve. The Chang Tang Reserve, named from the Tibetan words for "northern plain," would encompass an area the size of California.

Beijing's plan to pacify this restive Himalayan province involves a $3.2-billion railroad that will connect the rest of China to the frozen Tibetan plateau known as the roof of the world. The railroad, billed as the world's highest and due to be completed in 2007, represents the linchpin of China's ambitious "Go West" campaign to develop and repopulate its impoverished hinterland.

Kekexili is more than one of the most remote and starkly beautiful locations on Earth. It's a place with a spirit of its own, a spirit that's been infused into the strong and gritty Chinese import "Mountain Patrol: Kekexili." About four miles high on the Tibetan plateau, Kekexili is so remote and inhospitable, someone says, that "each step you take might be the first human footprints since the world began."

Beijing's plan to pacify this restive Himalayan province involves a $3.2-billion railroad that will connect the rest of China to the frozen Tibetan plateau known as the roof of the world. The railroad, billed as the world's highest and due to be completed in 2007, represents the linchpin of China's ambitious "Go West" campaign to develop and repopulate its impoverished hinterland.

They arrive on foot each Sunday, some walking as long as an hour. They come through the doorway in silence, then kneel, heads bowed, hands folded. Their prayers to Jesus echo off the cold stone walls; pictures of the Blessed Virgin gaze down from the church's pillars; the altar shimmers in the candlelight. It's a tableau of piety and reverence familiar around the world. But the thin, high-altitude sunlight that filters through the windows also reveals the unexpected.

Re "China Loan a Threat to Tibet," editorial, June 28: This World Bank project is one of many of China's poverty-alleviation programs throughout the country, where there are still some 40 million people living below the poverty line. The relocation of the population is totally on a voluntary basis. This project will provide significant health, education, employment and farming benefits to people in remote and inaccessible villages who now have incomes between about $25 and $60 a year.

To say that Tibet was "annexed" by China in 1951 is a little bit like saying folks in Ethiopia had a dietary deficiency in 1992 ("Tibet Film May Derail Disney's Efforts to Expand Into China," Nov. 23). China's "annexation" was a full-on military invasion. Since that time, 1.2 million Tibetans (including hundreds of thousands of Buddhist monks and nuns) have died as a direct result of execution, imprisonment, torture and starvation. Over 6,000 monasteries and nunneries were deliberately destroyed (only 10 to 13 remain)

Braving frigid blasts and bouts of altitude sickness, scientists are drilling for ancient ice in some of the world's most inhospitable places. The ice cores they are extracting from Greenland, Antarctica and the lofty Tibetan Plateau will contain records of changes in Earth's climate over hundreds of thousands of years. The cores also should help answer questions about global warming.

I knelt down beside fried dough twists, jasmine tea and a bowl of candies. The Tibetans watched me closely. As instructed, I used my thumbnail to scoop yak butter from the oiled wood tub and drop the yellow, waxy gobs into my tea. Yak butter tea is a staple for Tibetan nomads and an honor for distinguished guests. I did not consider myself distinguished, just one of the first foreigners to visit the Tibetan Highlands area of China in almost 25 years. Boojum Expeditions of San Diego had negotiated for two years to get permission from the People's Republic of China to explore northwestern Sichuan Province on horseback.

Braving frigid blasts and bouts of altitude sickness, scientists are drilling for ancient ice in some of the world's most inhospitable places. The ice cores they are extracting from Greenland, Antarctica and the lofty Tibetan Plateau will contain records of changes in Earth's climate over hundreds of thousands of years. The cores also should help answer questions about global warming.

A cold, wind-swept plain in Tibet populated with scores of birds, plants and animals found nowhere else on Earth has been proposed as the world's largest nature reserve. The Chang Tang Reserve, named from the Tibetan words for "northern plain," would encompass an area the size of California.

I knelt down beside fried dough twists, jasmine tea and a bowl of candies. The Tibetans watched me closely. As instructed, I used my thumbnail to scoop yak butter from the oiled wood tub and drop the yellow, waxy gobs into my tea. Yak butter tea is a staple for Tibetan nomads and an honor for distinguished guests. I did not consider myself distinguished, just one of the first foreigners to visit the Tibetan Highlands area of China in almost 25 years. Boojum Expeditions of San Diego had negotiated for two years to get permission from the People's Republic of China to explore northwestern Sichuan Province on horseback.