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.