I worked as a ceramist for my Master’s degree, and am now training to become a landscape archaeologist on Tibetan pastoralism here at WashU. To start my survey project, I recently went to Shannan with my colleagues to interview pastoralists in the mountains and grasslands of central-southern Tibetan plateau. Through ethnographic interview, we tried to figure out how local pastoralists arrange their subsistence practices over the landscape. We also did some core tests to look for archaeological sites.
Shannan, the region that we worked in, is fairly close to the economic, political, and religious center of Tibet: Lhasa. This region is characterized by two geological zones: The alpine grasslands in the south, and the river valleys in the north. Diverse types of pastoralism are practiced here.
A common Chinese stereotype of Tibet is that Tibetan plateau is a barren land, with extremely high altitude and a lack of oxygen. But the landscape of Tibet is far more diverse than that. In the lowland river valleys, the villages are rich, beautiful, and tranquil. people lead more or less a sedentary life. They have fewer animals (mostly sheep/goat/cattle), more restricted areas of herding (mostly in the nearby mountains). Herding strategies vary between different herds, sheep/goat, cattle, and yak.
On the contrary, the highland in southern Shannan is a land for pastoralism. The altitude is generally above 4200/4300 meters, making the growing of wheat and barley nearly impossible. People herd large numbers of yak and sheep, and travel relatively long distances seasonally.
Beside our ethnographic survey of subsistence patterns in general, one of the cool events of this field season was that we happened to get a chance to see the initiation ceremony of summer pastures in Chigu village. The people of Chigu village gathered their animals in the corral, burned incense, presented Kha-btags (a white scarf used for expressing gratitude and friendship) to the leading sheep and the leading pastoralist, separated the baby sheep from the herds, vaccinated the herds, and then took the road.
We also identified a possible archaeological site, Badong, at the elevation of 4600 meters. The site is possibly a highland seasonal pastoral corral. As its counterparts in ethnographic records, this type of pastoral corral is usually occupied by animals for a short period of time in a year. The pastoralists may live in a camp nearby to watch their animals. Not surprisingly, very few artifacts have been discovered in test pits of Badong sites. The dating of this site is Early Bronze Age, based on the C14 date of an animal bone, though it will need to be further confirmed.
Our 2018 ethnographic and archaeological pilot survey serves as a starting point for a systematic landscape archaeological study of Tibetan pastoralism. We hope to continue the survey and find various types of archaeological and ethnographic sites, to reveal Tibetan pastoral land use patterns through time.