A Personal Journey to the Tibetan Plateau (20)

Journey to Gaer, destination Gyaltseng.

The more widely known name of Gyaltseng is Leh, perhaps because the latter name conceals some of the pain of ethnic groups and is more poetic.Leh was originally named after the Leh River, which is an important river flowing from south to north in Tibet. It flows from countless springs along the way, and the rocks in the mountains resemble a lion, hence its name. When the Qing government was in a state of crisis due to the First Opium War, the local tribes in present-day Pakistan, such as the Sohetesen tribe, saw that the British repeatedly failed in their attacks on the southeast coast of the Qing Dynasty, so they launched an invasion of the Ladak region in Kashmir, then occupied the entire Kashmir and the Aili region, and even began to covet the Yili region in Xinjiang. The Qing government, which was surrounded by internal and external difficulties, was unable to take care of the west, and could only rely on the mobilization of the Tibetan people to resist. Under the difficult conditions of backward equipment and small number of troops, they fought fiercely to regain Aili and most of Kashmir…

Time has passed, the so-called 'Little Tibet' and its important components of Baltistan and the entire Kashmir region's actual control still belong to Pakistan and India. The lives of the warriors who died in the Simba War a hundred years ago, and the Tibetan compatriots, can they rest in peace?

Along the mountains and rivers, along the felt houses. I don't know if any of the names of national heroes like Guan Tian Pei and Chen Huache are buried in this land. I recall the textbooks I used to read, the war histories I read, and countless conversations, but I couldn't find any. Even the tragic history of this land with a total area of about 340,000 square kilometers, which is linked to the Simba War, was only discovered through local teachers and Wikipedia.

Regret is followed by more sorrow.

The paved road brought me to Leh's Gaer, I had a delusion when I saw this county seat far away, didn't I leave Tibet?

Because the buildings and the scenery here are difficult to be described as desolate like Tibet. This city has begun to have a more modern town scale. After entering the town, I didn't linger for too long, but my curiosity hadn't diminished. Although the buildings were not very tall, they were initially arranged in a small scale; the roads were not very wide, but they were interlinked and had a certain layout. Many places were inscribed with 'Shaanxi Construction' and 'Hebei Construction'. This important county city on the new Tibetan line has begun to show strong vitality.

Here is a place where people worked and sacrificed their lives with admiration.

'It is not a man's virtue to sacrifice oneself and die without returning.' This is what he left behind. It was Cong Fensheng.

At that time, ordinary people's life direction seemed to despise such people, but when I came to Aili, people who were not forgotten in any era.

Before coming to Tibet, like many people, I had heard the name of Cong Fensheng, knowing he was a public servant promoted by the government, vaguely remembering some of his propaganda deeds. But these were just knowing, these knowing couldn't deepen my heart. When I came here and had a simple chat with the locals, I had to admire Cong Fensheng. I'm not a very sensitive person to numbers, but I remembered a few about him.

In less than two years, he ran more than 90 villages across the entire Aili region, traveling more than 80,000 kilometers. I can hardly imagine how he did this without roads at that time. When he died from a car accident, he only had cash of 8.6 yuan. I think if I were there, I would also cry. He was a county official respected by the people, a very powerful official in the Chinese administrative system.

Of course, if there is no result, the official is not worth being praised. The locals told me that without Cong Fensheng, there would be no their today's life. This really moved me, and the couplets they left for Cong Fensheng really made me.

'Unstained, two sleeves of clear wind, regard name and fortune, safety and life as like Leh River.'