Tibet's Hidden Wilderness: Wildlife And Nomads Of The Chang Tang Reserve

Tibet's Hidden Wilderness: Wildlife and Nomads of the Chang Tang Reserve

Tibet's Chang Tang ("Northern Plain") is a vast, remote area where ice-capped peaks soar over windswept steppe and arid plains. Its southern reaches are home to nomadic herders, but most of the region is the exclusive domain of a unique community of spectacular and rare mammals - such as wild yak and Tibetan antelope - most of which have seldom been seen, much less studied. For years, world-renowned wildlife biologist George Schaller longed to explore the Chang Tang, but Tibet's doors were closed. Finally, in 1988, Schaller became the first Westerner permitted to enter this uninhabited region. He sought to answer many basic questions about these unstudied animals. Largely as a result of the work of Schaller and his local colleagues, the Chinese government has set aside more than 125,000 square miles of this high-altitude terrain as a reserve - the second largest in the world. Profusely illustrated with Schaller's haunting photographs, Tibet's Hidden Wilderness is a unique record of one of the earth's most remote and least-known regions. It introduces us to the Chang Tang's majestic landscape, extraordinary wildlife, and traditional nomadic society and concludes with a hopeful plan that would allow the people and animals there to continue to live in harmony.