The Lancang's shifting mood

Part 4

Vithoon Pungprasert

The Nation

 Our team continued apace in northern Yunnan, near the Tibetan border, coming to a mountain summit 3,000 metres above sea level. Seeing the Lancang below, I wondered what, if the river could speak, it would tell me.

 I could hear its voice, the furious gushing of the current. It seemed to me that the river could continue flowing forever to nourish the millions of mortals downstream.

 I asked myself whether the Lancang might be able to send out a message of sharing and unity to those people.

If it managed to get that notion across, maybe people of different opinions could see the importance of making the best of the river, so that it might be used for the benefit of all mankind, not just any one individual country.

 If the river could speak of peace, ethnic reconciliation and respect for the spirit of humanity, there should be no problems along its course.

 I imagined the Lancang might want to say this:

All of humanity flows from the same stream, from holy Mother Nature. So why not protect Nature, to ensure that the river is of use to all parties, so that we can avoid using political turmoil to achieve our ends?

 I sincerely hoped just such a message might be carried all the way along the Lancang's length.

RIVER SUNSET

 In this part of the Tibetan Plateau, which is itself the source of the three great rivers - the Yangtze, Lancang and Salween - there's an ominous sign of water sources under threat.

 Over the past 10 years global warming has contributed to the gradual depletion of ice fields. In the next 12 years, it's believed half of the existing ice will disappear. In 25 years the water source might just dry up.

 This has never happened in the past century. Certainly the main culprit is climate change. As if by magic, all these rivers come from the same source. It's a modern calamity if this one source is in peril of evaporating.

 However, sitting by the Lancang on this moonlit evening, I could still see the snow-capped peaks and hear the river surging below.

 But then a pale shimmer of reflected moonshine on the water ushered in a strangely warm and romantic shift in the night, despite an icy wind.

 It was easy to succumb to this mantra, fantasy - or self-delusion, if you like. Whatever it was, the Lancang on closer scrutiny was anything but calm. It was always furious with its raucous rapids and endlessly gushing undercurrents.

 It felt so different looking at the Mekong beneath a full moon back in Nong Khai, even though it was the same moon.

 Later it dawned on me that the river's mood swayed from day to night. By day the roaring current seems uncontrollable. Come darkness and the river won't give too much of itself away.

 Looks can be deceptive, and you need to feel the river's flow first-hand to realise its true identity. The Lancang was expressing the dual moods on the Chinese and Tibetan sides.

LANCANG PURSUIT

 Over the last two days we kept following the river's course towards the Tibetan border. We made our way as far as a village called Fusan, the last on a trail leading upwards to the Tibetan Plateau.

 The road seemed under repair, with piles of gravel on both sides. It was a long, rocky ride to the border. Here the river divided the land between the Tibetan and Chinese frontiers.

 Soon the barren landscape was jolted to life with the thickening of Tibetan villages, all overshadowed by terraced rice paddies. A herd of cattle and yaks soon came into view.

 On the Tibetan side, most houses flew Chinese flags, perhaps suggestive of the still-tense political climate following last August's unrest in Lhasa.

 To our surprise, the food here was in bountiful supply: pork, chicken and several kinds of vegetables. We'd thought it was going to be another day of hunger.

 The villagers raised black chickens, which they believe are healthier than the regular variety. We were hoping to have black-chicken tom yum in Tibet, but unfortunately couldn't come up with all the spices we needed.

 Near the village stood a border checkpoint. Here it was the mountains, the sun and the cold. We continued chasing the horizon.

 The TV series "Mekong … the Untamed" is on Channel 9 every Monday at 10.15pm.