31st August 2009 - MOUNTAIN PATROLS

Last monday, BEACA was watching one movie called Mountain Patrols. this movie was based on true story wrote by Beijing Jounalist named Ga Yu. Ga Yu was sent to kekexili to cover a story about patrols volunteer who had been missing and the killing of rare Tibetan antelope. Ra Tai the leader of the militia brought Ga Yu to their 19th days of journey to find the head of poachers and skinners. through the eyes of Ra Tai and other patrolmen, Ga Yu witnessed the sacrificing of them to preserve the Tibetan Antelopes. from this movie it also showed some cultures that had been practiced by the Tibetan people and many more. this one hour in the half movie was very interesting and should be watch by all so that they were more about their surrounding environments.

Kekexili was a region of China bordering on Tibet. it was far southwest of Qinghai, one of the provinces in west China. Moreover, Far northern Tibet Autonomous region lived the remaining of Tibetan antelope, wild yaks and snow leopard. it was here where the story of journalist was focused on. what amazing about this place was the culture and environment there. people of Kekexili had a hard time in their life because they live in harsh environments. kekexili desert was also called as no-man land. there were less fire and climatic changes like snow, cold and even the dangerous quicksand. however even they facing all of this problems they could survive it though. this was prove in the movie. when Ga Yu reached to Kekexili, it showed the harsh environments and also when one of the patrolmen got stuck in the quicksand and die there alone.

Beside of the harsh environments, the movie also showed some interesting culture of tibet people. for example they sing and dance a lot. Dancing is an integral part of every tibetan's life. they dance and sing for nearly every event, wedding, funeral, gathering and even just for fun. inside the movies the patrolmens dance and sing along so that they feel homey and happy. it was because they travelled far from their village and the chances of die is very high. moreover, from all over the culture of tibet shown, there was one of it that was very unique. it's the Tibetan Sky Burial. this was one of the types of burial the tibetan does. there was actually other type likes water burial, ground burial and fire burial but the sky burial was the common one used.

sky burial is where the of the dead person are offered to the vulture as a final act of kindness to living beings. another reasons why they used this sky burial was fuel is scarce and often the land was too hard too dig and it was also an easy practice. for tibetans people vultures were Dakinis. Dakinis are the Tibetan equivalent of angels. moreover this ritual was very sacred. no cameras was allowed and only invitation people was to watch this ritual.

vultures are scanvenging birds feeding mostly on the carcasses of deadv animal. vultures that are talking above was called cinnerous vultures. they can be seen in various Tibetan inhabited areas. besides vultures, antelope was other animal and most impotant animal been emphasise in this movie.

Tibetan antelope was also called Chiru. nowadays there were only 75,000 left in the wild. tibetan antelope was listed as an endangered by the world Conservation Union and United States fish and Wildlife service. chiru's wool known as Shahtoosh. in the movies it showed poachers hunted the antelopes because of the pelts. pelts could brought more income to them because it was very expensive and legally sold outside the china

most of kekexili people before was shepherding and cattling. but due to the climatic changes. The grassland before had became desertland. all shepherd and cattle was die. and they saw selling antelopes was one desperate decision to made so that to support their own life and family. and now they decide to became poachers and skinners to raise for money.

Finally, the end of the movie was very dramatic. RA Tai the leader of patrolmens was die shot by the head of poachers. Ga Yu back to Beijing and publish his story to public and it shock all the nation. They were very surprised because they never thought it really happened there.

the movie itself had given a lot to learn, think and adapt to our life. we were blessed to live in Brunei Darussalam compared to kekexili. The environmetns here was far more better than kekexili. Brunei had it own preserved forest and resources. while for them it was only a desert land with less resources to get. the leadership of Ra Tai can be aplied to our very own life. life there was not that easy and great sacrifice was needed. apart from that even if they facing struggle and harshness in life they still can sing, dance and share hapiness with each other. it showed that whenerver happened to them they able to get through it with the support from one another. we also need to be like that so that even facing a big problem we could deal with it later.

only after the story of Ga Yu published, the awareness of the government of china was rose. they now made kekexili as the natural preserved and killing antelopes was ilegal. anybody caught selling pelts would be fined and prisoned. not only that due to reduce the negative impact of the railways construction on the life of wild animals, special animal channel was made under the Qinghai-Tibet railways.

MENUAI PADI- 17th August at kawasan kemajuan pertanian projek penanaman padi wasan.

Yesterday, for the second trip of BEACA, we went to Wasan Project Area Of Planting Paddy. it was where Paddy Laila was being planted. according to the Pelita Brunei: 1,344 hectares of land was used for this project and soon will be producing 8,064 ton of rice per year. this project itself was supported by His Majesty The Sultan Dan Yang Dipertuan Negara Brunei Darussalam. Like what His Majesty had said Brunei Darussalam was in need to increase the nation's agriculture particularly in riceso that to ensure the country will reached self-suffiency especially during the world food crisis.

when we entering the main road toward the project area, all we can see was paddy everywhere. feeling of anxious was occupying me because this was my first time experienced to see more closed how to harvest the paddy. and yes why our lecturer chose to go to Wasan Project Area to be our second trip was that they wanted us to get to know and see how to plant paddy traditionally and its procedure. this was because we only eat the rice and did not think where it was come from and how hard the process had done by them so that it finally became like that.


Arriving there, we were welcomed by the owner of the paddy area that we will going to harvest, Haji Mohd Ali bin Haji Bakar and one of his workers Ade. Dr Irene was giving small briefing to us on what to do. she said that we were giving one hour to practice how to harvest and asked some questions to the owner and his workers. after wearing boots, gloves, hats and Tembigan ( a basket tied in the waist and used to collect paddy that we got) we walked along the muddy and slippery path due to the raining last night. what came in my thought that time was is this place secured? because what i had learned and knew from parents before was that in paddy area there will be a slug, snake maybe and mouse sometime. this would be a challenge for me since i was afraid of all this creatures. how can i face them if i saw it? but luckily when i asked to Ade he said that this area does not had that such thing anymore because they are not using the buffalo as the transport in clearing the land. instead they used some sort of machine.

TEMBIGAN


PONDOK

During the harvesting time i feel exciting as now i know some methods being done in planting paddy and it was not that simple. harvesting was only part of the planting paddy. after harvesting, the paddy soon will be dried. i asked one of the workers and he said drying the paddy was depending on the weather. if it was hot day the paddy will dry quickly just in 3 days. another stages that will be done after harvestig was Mengirik and Mengisar. and this was done by machine like Thresher and Portable Rice Mill.

HARVESTING TIME!!

DRYING THE PADDY

one interesting fact i found surrounding the paddy plantation was that each owner identify their zone by different ways like planting papaya tree along their land, somes tied black plastic along a rope and even a leaf of tarap was also been attached to the rope along the corner.

Finally after one hour of experiencing how to harvest paddy, we get some rest and served with foods and drinks. in the meantime, Haji Mohd Ali also explained the use of shade by the side of paddy was to prevent the mouse from entering it. it was believe some mice manage to jump through the black shade. but at least they tried already to stop all the mice spoiling their paddy.

later the owner, Haji Mohd Ali gave us a pack of rice called 'BARAS LAILA'. on the way back home i had been thinking that how much effort had been done by them to produce a very quality rice from good paddy. this trip had not only teaching me in many ways but it also make me realized how important rice was in our daily life. the knowledge i gained from this trip will benefit me a lot especially when people asked what was the process had been done by people to make paddy then to become rice.

TESTING TESTING.. hahaha..

okiesss... why i createe this blog??



Becausee of BEACA..yess... BEACA stand for Brunei Environment Appreciation and Community Action. it is one of the new program under SHBIE.

as for todaay 17th August. it was our 2nd trip...but for me is my 1st trip due to some strong reasons hhaha.. THIS TRIP I WILL TOLD IN THE NEXT POST. THIS IS JUST A TESTINGG THOUGH..