#JjWTravel
In this video, I tell stories of the villagers’ life as it is without any form of intervention. Located in the junction of three local prefectures, it has been left alone, not interfered by the outside world. Although not yet very skilled with operating a video camera, I have tried my best to capture the real existence of the villagers and the environment without bothering them. The pandemic has forced me to stay put this year but turned out a perfect timing to learn to edit my videos. I know there are many places needing to be improved. I will try to do better in my future videos for you. I appreciate and value your support very much!
15 years ago, summer 2005. I returned from the US & Canada. to Singapore & Shanghai, I bought an old Cherokee Jeep and drove for 5000 kilometes from Shanghai to Tibet Xizang. From a village in Northern Tibet, I gazed in awe this spectacular mountain from a distance. I drove straight towards it on a flat vast grassland and my jeep fell nose down into a hidden ditch covered underneath grass, badly crashed. I had told my daughter since morning to fasten her seat belt, a good habit formed in the US, so fortunately, we survived. We waited for hours till a motorcyclist from the village happened to pass by and gave my daughter a ride back to the village to call for help. Head of the village and Secretary of the township (both I knew) came with a truck with several villagers loaded up my Cherokee after much digging and towing and sent it for repair in Shigatse.
I drove back as soon as the jeep finished repairing and I sent my daughter to the airport. Rain covered the whole grassland as well as the 10-kilometer path; vehicles were driving in the water. Named Daguo, as I learned later, it is the Mountain of Seven Gods. It appeared very close but I had to pass many rivers to reach it. Daguo River, is the biggest, with 70 centimetres at its deepest and about 15 meters in width. Fortunately I installed the wading hose. I drove very carefully but uneasily through the rapidly flowing river and then drove another 10 kilometres around the main peak of the mountain to its east. From afar, I saw two little girls, one around 12 or 13 years old and one much younger, herding the sheep. As soon as they saw my jeep, they quickly ran away and hid at a lower slope. I didn't bother them. Later I learned that my jeep was the first automobile they saw coming near their village. After the first success, I return to the village every year as a photographer. I started videoing and using drone to help filming since 2018. Most of the footage for this video was taken in 2019 one month after my second stomach surgery (the first one was half a year before the first one). The two little girls, now grownups, are Yitala, the leading character in this video, and her sister. I saw them growing up.
In 1996, my first trip to Lhasa. About 4am, I arrived at the sleeping long-distance bus transportation station at the west surburb of Lhasa. Sitting at a corner, I waited till daybreak not knowing what to do. Lixeh and his friend, two Tibetans in their early 50s, approached me and invited me to join their worshiping trips to temples. I injured my ankle badly when getting out of a boat in the Yarlung Zangbo River. They sent me to hospital and Lixeh took care of me until I was able to walk properly. Since then, my adventures to Tibet have seen no end.
My video link.
# JjWu Tibet
