Through Tibetan Jungle of the lower Yi’ong Tsangpo

Autumn 2011 Expedition to Eastern Tibe

Tamotsu (Tom) Nakamura

Permit problems
While flying from Chengdu to Lhasa in the morning you will not be able to avert your eyes from the magnificent snowy peaks with large glaciers that look like giant white dragons. Many of the more than 200 overwhelming 6000 m peaks (almost all of them remain unclimbed) with impressive and mostly unexplored glaciers are concentrated on the both sides of the Yi’ong Tsangpo in Nyainqentanglha-East.

The situation that was bad since the 2008 Beijing Olympic has got worse during 2010 and 2011 – it is now more difficult for foreigners to enter eastern Tibet. The 60th Anniversary Celebrations of Tibet Liberation 1951 held at Lhasa in June 2011 has been the tipping point. Qamdo Prefecture has totally closed its doors to foreigners except for Rawu (Lhagu glacier) and Midoi glacier areas which are sightseeing spots. In Nyainchi Prefecture, foreigners are allowed to visit towns only along the main route 318 – Sichuan-Tibet Highway. The Public Security Bureau (PSB) of the Nyaichi Prefecture has been strictly controlling and banned foreigners to approach areas off the main route 318.

Three elderly members from the Hengduan Mountains Club who set out to visit the area were Tamotsu (Tom) Nakamura 76, Tsuyoshi Nagai 79, Tadao Shintani 65. The places on the permit issued to us by the Nyainchi PSB were only those of towns: Lunang, Tangmai, Bomi (Pome), Midoi and Rawu along a main route 318 of the Sichuan- Tibet Highway. To accomplish our objective we could not obey such restrictions that the PSB was imposing and we decided to enter the lower Yi’ong Tsangpo from Tangmai on 16 October.

12 Days Blank
Vehicle roads along the lower Yi’ong Tsangpo were constructed from the Lake Yi’ong to Bake village one and half years ago. On the 17th we directly went to the Bake which was originally considered as our base for explorations. However as soon as we arrived at Bake, the police ordered us to return and, for due registration, soon report to the PSB of Bomi County administrating the police in Bake. If we had gone to the Bomi PSB, our expedition would have ended as the PSB would have never allowed us to again enter the Yi’ong Tsangpo.

Facing such a crucial moment our capable Tibetan guide Awang was very discreet, but my obsession for exploring the lower Yi’ong Tsangpo basin would not allow us to easily abandon our plan to unveil unknown peaks and glaciers in the region. So we did not go to Bomi. I ordered Awang to take us to the Jianpu glacier marching up a large branch valley of Wopu. We set up our base at Wopu village. The Jiangpu glacier is one of the largest valley type glaciers developing in the northern side of the lower Yi’ong Tsangpo where unknown and untrodden 6000 m peaks in Nyainqentanglha East are mostly clustered. A six day horse caravan journey from Wopu village brought us to the Juangpu glacier and to magnificent views of outstanding 6000 m peaks surrounding the glacier. After 12 days of secret explorations, Awang received a telephone call from his travel agent at Lhasa that the PSB in Nyainchi was nervous about three missing Japanese and that he must soon report to the PSB in Nyainchi. The head of the PSB, a Khamba man, insisted that Awang must explain day-by-day details of the 12 days. Awang has an excellent talent. He made up a consistent story for the 12 days, not referring to the fact that we had been far off the route 318. Awang was finally released after being summoned thrice by the PSB.

Through a Tibetan jungle
A stream of the Yi’ong Tsangpo was not as clear this year because of continued heavy rain. However primeval forests of large conifer trees are beautiful and gorges are breathtaking. Frank Kingdon-Ward wrote in his book Assam Adventures (1942 London) of his journey in 1935 that the Yi’ong Tsangpo gorges were more magnificent than those of the main stream, the Yarlung Tsangpo. A raging stream rushing down through the gorge is awe inspiring and spectacular.

One of the objectives of our Autumn 2011 Expedition was to trace a forgotten trail from Bake to Niwu. In between there are impassable gorges which demarcate the lower and upper Yi’ong Tsangpo. In the past only few local villagers passed through this path except for Frank Kingdon-Ward in 1935. A monk of Bomi recently tried to go to Niwu from Bake, but he gave up his effort as it was too dangerous. Nevertheless we had still a keen interest in the formidable gorges.

For the second objective - to explore the Jiangpu glacier, on 18 October, we set up our base at a Tibetan house in Wopu village where 11 families of Kongpo people resided. The vehicle road ended here. The house has recently been built with local government subsidy. Wopu valley becomes narrower from the Wopu village and an exhausting Tibetan jungle begins.

We organised a horse caravan of eight horses (not mules) and horsemen cum porters including a cheerful young nun. We departed from the Wopu village at 10.00 a.m. on 20 October. The caravan soon entered a jungle and arrived at an uninhabited monastery with two Tibetan houses near-by. The trail suddenly became rocky, muddy, rough, and hindered by prickly vines and fallen trees. Horsemen struggled to open trails for horses to pass through by cutting trees lying on the trail using a heavy Tibetan hatchet. One of the horsemen was kicked by his horse, fell down steep slope and suffered serious injuries. The trail was often lost in small steams. Horse riding was so dangerous that we had to walk almost all the way. The riding was harder than climbing. We camped at 2940 m (Camp 1) in a small pasture surrounded with thick forest.

We marched up an annoying trail on the following day to Camp 2 at 3200 m. The riding was even more difficult than the previous day. The trail suddenly disappeared above Camp 2, which was located close to the east face of Sang Ri Mai c. 6000 m on the left bank of the Wopu valley. The camp site was humid, surrounded with tall and dense trees, which impeded a view to the Jiangpu glacier to north. Some horsemen and Awang went further up the jungle to search for an appropriate lookout point over the Jiangpu glacier. They could find a good place at 3240 m, which had a sheer drop covered with bushes into the river bed not far from the glacial terminus.

The weather did us no favour either - since15 October we had had no fine days. Climate in the lower Yi’ong Tsangpo is normally unstable, but 2011 was a bit extraordinary, too many cloudy and rainy days.

On 24 October, we had fine weather at last but only for a couple of hours in the morning. We rushed to the lookout point gasping through jungle with no trail but were in time to have a complete view of the lower part of unknown Jiangpu glacier and inspiring Jongpu Po Rong, 6570 m in the morning sunshine. The south face of twin rock peaks soared dominantly over the headwaters of the glacier. Three upper glaciers joined from northeast, north and northwest at about 4200 m and streamed down southeastwards forming the lower part of the glacier. Two-thirds of the eight km long lower glacier is debri-covered. The Jiangpu glacier is 21 km long and with a surface area of 132.7 km² is the second longest / largest glacier next to the Qiaqing glacier in Nyaiqentanglha East.

From the lookout point we could see the east faces of two challenging 6000 m peaks, one is Sang Ri Dui 6060 m (north) and Sang Ri Mai c.6000 m (south) and other 5700 – 5800 m peaks ranging to the north.

Glaciers in Nyaiqentanglha East
The glaciers of Nyainqentanglha East Range are of an oceanic type. They are larger in number and surface area than those in Nyainqentanglha West where glaciers have only developed in the near vicinity of the mountain tops, while 30% of the total glacier area of the huge eastern mountain ranges is in the region of about 200 km between Lhari and Qingdou of Nyainqentanglha East. The largest glaciers of eastern Tibet are located to the north and the northeast of the lower Yi’ong Tsangpo. In 1989 the Chinese Academy of Sciences carried out the first field survey and research, since then no stranger has set foot on the glacier anymore.

According to An Introduction to Glaciers in China written in Chinese and published in 1988 by the Langzhou Institute of Glaciology and Geocyology, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, there are 2905 glaciers with a total area of 5895 km² in Nyainqentanglha mountain range. That corresponds to approximately 7% of the total area of the mountain range. If the 1638 km² of the adjacent Kangri Garpo are added, the total glacier area rises to 7536 km². Thus the region ranks fourth among the twelve glacier regions in China. The total area is 1.7 times as large as that of the European Alps. Many of those glacier terminuses are in small or large glacial lakes. Recent satellite photos show new glacial lakes that are not even marked on the Russian topographic maps.

The Yi’ong Tsangpo which is a sizeable tributary of the Yarlung Tsangpo (the upper Brahmaputra) joins the other tributary, the Parlung Tsangpo, at Tangmai north of the Tsangpo Great Bend and flows into the main stream of the Yarlung Tsangpo. Around here Nyaiqentanglha East range receives humid air current blowing through the Tsangpo gorge from the Bay of Bengal. This causes heavy rainfall in the mountains which fosters development of the glaciers. In valley zones annual average rain fall is more or less 1000 mm and in the high mountain zone it reached to 2000 – 3000 mm which makes Nyainqentanglha East be the region where glaciers are mostly developing in Tibet at present. Many of glacier terminuses come down to forest zones.

Summary:
First complete ascent of the Mazeno ridge of Nanga Parbat by Sandy Allan and Rick Allen in July 2012. This spectacular ascent was awarded the prestigious ‘Piolets d’Or’.Exploration of Jiangpu glacier in the lower Yi’ong Tsangpo region of Eastern Tibet and description of glaciers in the Nyainqentanglha range in October 2011.

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