Mekong Diaries: Day 7

Day 7

Met with Japanese explorer over breakfast. Kitamura explained and showed us on a map that the Mekong has 2 geographical sources and 3 sources observed in Tibetan Buddhist beliefs. The place we had reached is know as Zaqui Chi Wa.

In 1994 it took him 8 days on horseback to make the journey from Moyun to the Lasagoma Glacier. At the time there was a race between two expeditions to two competing possible origins. Kitamura was part of a joint expedition between Japan and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The other team was a French and English party, aiming for Chacharima source at the Rupsa Pass. The CAS expedition travelled from Moyun to Zana Sondo to measure the water volume of the two longest tributaries that join at this point, the Zaya Qu and the Zana Qu. The results of this test found that the Zaya Qu was the main channel of the river.

Positive news for us is that the river which passes our destination, the Zashi Chi Wa Spring, called the Za is the one that flows to the scientific source.

When we asked the only question about the dams we dared Kitamura’s answer was succinct: Dams means no rapids, no culture, no nature.

After our good fortune in meeting Kitamura we drove through the town to Gomba Monastery which sits at the end of a valley emptying into the Mekong’s cradle just before it flows through the center of Zaduo.

We wandered through its many stupas until finding a Khampa camp perched on a small flat piece of land. Stopping to speak with the families of 19 people living there we discovered that they were the wealthiest nomads we had encountered so far. Speaking with the lady of the house we discovered that their connection to the Mekong is one of love and pride.

We drove back down the hill and on the way stopped to photograph some young boys playing pool on a table outside next to the river. This is the destiny of the nomads if the Chinese government is successful, urban slums with no culture and nothing to do.

We left Zaduo for the last time and it seemed the purity of the grasslands slipped behind us as we started downhill into the modern world.

Finally arriving Nanching looks less like a holy city than a typical Chinese industrial provincial satellite. After dinner a local drafted a map of the Mekong on the table top with chopsticks. In the darkness outside our restaurant a large anti-aircraft gun on a tractor provided a strange reminder of the volatility of this region.