You can never imagine how crazy people can sometimes be for money?
In the late 1980s, a shawl called "Shatoosh" became a luxury item sought after by wealthy Europeans.
"Shatoush" comes from Persian, which translates to "king of cashmere".
At that time, a high-quality "Shatoosh" shawl could be sold for 30,000 US dollars ( equivalent to about 200,000 yuan ).
It is still recognized as the lightest and softest cashmere in the world.
To make a "Shatoush" requires all the cashmere from at least three Tibetan antelopes.
The only way to get cashmere is to kill the Tibetan antelope first, and then peel off the skin alive.
Qinghai Hoh Xil is one of the nature reserves with the richest wildlife resources.
It is also a gathering place for Tibetan antelopes.
However, driven by high profits,
Sinful bullets were shot indiscriminately on this land, and a large number of Tibetan antelopes were hunted.
The number dropped sharply, from 1 million to less than 10,000, almost to extinction.
Even worse, because Tibetan antelopes run fast, in order to catch up with them, some poachers will choose the breeding season of Tibetan antelopes, because Tibetan antelopes with small lambs are not fast.
In this way, the little lamb that had not had time to be born died in the belly of the slaughtered ewe.
Once the poachers enter the no-man's land, they hunt at least several hundred to 1,000 Tibetan antelopes at a time. Sometimes, as many as 2,000.
In the eyes of poachers, they cannot see the despair in the eyes of Tibetan antelopes;
They can't see their cruelty, because they only see money in their eyes.
In 2004, the movie "Kekexili" was released, and director Lu Chuan restored the story that changed the fate of the Tibetan antelope with pictures that were almost documentary.
At the beginning of the movie, a mountain ranger was shot by a poacher. In order to hunt down the murderer, scenes of human greed were staged in Hoh Xil.
Hoh Xil, with an average altitude of 5,000 meters, is known as the "Forbidden Zone of Life" .
The weather here is unpredictable, the first second is the scorching sun, and the next second it is snowing.
In winter, the temperature here can reach as low as minus 46 degrees Celsius!
That is to say, once you lose your way, you can only fend for yourself in the fierce wind and snow.
There are also hidden man-eating quicksand and swamps formed by melting ice and snow. If you accidentally step on it for a few seconds, it will be swallowed by soft fine sand and mud.
For seventeen days, he pursued the road, braved heavy snow and severe cold, walked on the muddy road, and had food and lodging in the car.
There is also a mountain ranger alone in the no-man's land of Hoh Xil for 3 years.
A humble house, a man, a flag, a gun.
As Lu Chuan said: "Kekexili is heaven, hell, and a holy place to witness life and faith."
Don't think the plot of the movie is exaggerating, because this movie is based on real events.
In 1992, in order to protect the Tibetan antelope, the Hoh Xil Ecological Environmental Protection Agency - the Western Work Committee was established.
Jaisan Sonam Taje became the first secretary.
For more than a year, Sonam Dajie took his team in and out of Hoh Xil many times to pursue and arrest poachers.
Sonam Dajie said, "People must die in this place, not the poachers, or me!"
Two years later, misfortune happened.
One night in 1994, Sonam Dajie and 4 team members captured 20 poachers in Hoh Xil, and seized 7 cars and more than 1,800 Tibetan antelope skins.
Two of the poachers were injured. Out of humanitarian concern, Sonam Dajie asked the other two team members to escort the injured to treatment first, while he and the other were responsible for escorting the remaining 18 poachers.
The poachers took advantage of Sonam Dajie's inattentiveness to cut the car tires. The plateau climate is extremely harsh, and it is very likely to freeze to death after nightfall. In order to supplement the heat, everyone had to stop to boil water to cook.
The poachers took this opportunity to sneak up on Sonam Dajie's companions and snatch the guns from the car.
In the end, Sonam Tajie was unfortunately shot through the artery between his calf and thigh.
A few days later, when people found Sonam Dajie's body, he had been frozen into an ice sculpture in a snowstorm of minus 40 degrees.
To this day, when we enter Hoh Xil, we can still see the statue of Sonam Dajie.
In this way of commemorating heroes, people commemorate the once guardians of this land.
The death of Sonam Dajie shocked all circles and public opinion at that time, and awakened the awareness of protecting Tibetan antelope in our country.
In October 1995, the Qinghai Provincial Government approved the establishment of the "Kekexili Provincial Nature Reserve".
In December 1997, the State Council approved and announced the area as a national nature reserve.
Since then, more and more Guardians have suffered from headaches, tinnitus, dizziness and chest tightness;
Come to this untouched no-man's land, join the patrol, protect this paradise on earth with your life, and continue to fight against poachers.
Xiaogu once saw something like this on the Internet: "A photographer saw a small Tibetan antelope who was very close to people in Hoh Xil, and he fed it water, but the leader of the Tibetan antelope protection team next to him fiercely took the small antelope. The sheep ran away."
The photographer did not understand and asked him why he did this, and he replied: "You will make them think that human beings are kind".
It sounds cruel, but it is the most effective way to protect Tibetan antelopes by making them vigilant or even afraid of humans.
A martyr rests his eyes, and there are still many heroes in the frontier; a martyr rests in peace, and his career has successors.
With the efforts of batches of guardians, since 2006, Hoh Xil has not heard a gunshot for 15 years, and the number of Tibetan antelopes has recovered to at least 300,000, successfully removing the threatened species.
Today's Hoh Xil, with blue sky and white clouds, is vast and magnificent.
Under the sky, Tibetan antelopes, wild yaks, Tibetan wild donkeys, brown bears, wolves, etc. run freely, full of rude beauty.
At the same time, it is also a paradise for high-altitude plants, nourishing the gorgeous plateau plants.
There are 210 species of plants distributed, of which 72 are endemic to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, such as short-stemmed moss-like snow ganoderma, Qinghai delphinium, Hoh Xil point plum and so on.
Because of the biodiversity here. On July 7, 2017, Hoh Xil was inscribed on the World Natural Heritage List by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee.
Xiaogu once saw a netizen asking on the Internet: "Why must Tibetan antelopes be protected?"
I want to say that it is these people who protect Hoh Xil through their lives that allow the once endangered Tibetan antelope to continue to live on this earth.
It is not that later generations can only know through pictures and images that there are such running spirits on the plateau.
No one is born great, they just have something they desperately want to protect.
If you can, remember these guardians of the Tibetan antelope.
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