回不去的西藏，走向消亡的游牧生活

For hundreds of years, nomadic Dokpa yak herders moved between the high-altitude Tibetan Plateau and the Himalayan valleys of Sikkim, following migration patterns that were crucial to their culture and their livestock. Yaks had the opportunity to breed beyond their own gene pool; young people could meet potential spouses from a wide variety of families; Dokpas ran lucrative cross-border trade operations and visited sacred places where they performed important Buddhist rituals. With the outbreak of hostilities between India and China in 1962, however, the frontier between India and Tibet was sealed. Dokpa migration routes were severed and families were trapped on whichever side of the border they happened to be on when it was closed.

數(shù)百年來，放牧牦牛的牧民在高海拔的青藏高原和錫金喜馬拉雅山谷之間遷徙，遵循著對其文化和牲畜都至關(guān)重要的遷徙模式。牦牛不僅有機會超越自己的基因庫進行繁殖，也讓年輕人可以從大量不同的家族那里遇到未來配偶。牧民們開展著利潤豐厚的跨境貿(mào)易業(yè)務(wù)，前往舉行重要佛事的圣地。然而，隨著印度與中國在1962年爆發(fā)敵對行動，印度和西藏之間的邊界被封鎖了。牧民的遷徙路線被切斷，游牧家族被困在了他們當(dāng)時恰好所在的一側(cè)。

Life for the nomads became increasingly difficult as they struggled to adapt their age-old survival strategies to their newly restricted territory. For those stuck on the Sikkim side, many challenges — including land mines that blew up their yaks and economic oppression by local, non-nomadic Lachenpa people — arose and persist to this day.

面對新近受到的領(lǐng)土限制，這些游牧民族努力調(diào)整舊式的生存策略，他們的生活變得越發(fā)艱難。那些被困在錫金一邊的人遇到了很多挑戰(zhàn)，并且持續(xù)到今天，包括牦牛踩到地雷被炸死，以及當(dāng)?shù)胤怯文撩褡謇瓪J巴人(Lachenpa)對他們的經(jīng)濟壓迫。

With their herds suffering and their future bleak, Dokpas began abandoning the mountains a few decades ago. Today, virtually every family sends their children to boarding schools run by the Tibetan government, in Indian cities as far away as Varanasi and Bangalore – and most parents know that their children will never return to the incredibly harsh life of herding yaks between 14,000 and 18,000 feet above sea level. These photos are part of a project that I’ve been working on to document Dokpa life in north Sikkim, before it disappears forever.

隨著牦牛群受困，他們的未來變得黯淡，牧民們幾十年前開始離開山脈。今天，幾乎每個家庭都將孩子送到瓦拉納西和班加羅爾那些遙遠的印度城市，送到西藏政府管理的寄宿學(xué)校上學(xué)，絕大多數(shù)父母都知道，孩子永遠不會再回到在海拔1.4萬英尺(約4300米)到1.8萬英尺(約5500米)的地方放牧牦牛的那種艱苦生活中去了。在錫金北部牧民的生活永遠消失之前，我一直在努力記錄它，這些照片就是該項目的一部分。

Gelik left his life as a high-altitude yak herder about 20 years ago to move to the Tibetan settlement of Ravangla. He explained that when the border between India and Tibet was sealed, all Dokpas thought it was a temporary response, and that after some time they’d be allowed to migrate again. But they weren’t, and as a result, the yak-herding life became too difficult. He wants to go back to Tibet once before he dies.

大約20年前，格里克(Gelik)放棄高海拔牦牛牧民的生活，搬到了拉旺格拉(Ravangla)的藏人定居點。他說，當(dāng)初印度和西藏之間的邊界被封鎖時，所有牧民都以為這只是暫時的，只要過一段時間，他們就能恢復(fù)遷移。但并沒有，放牧牦牛的生活變得太過艱難。他想在死之前回一趟西藏。

Samten Doma milks a yak in the mountains of north Sikkim. She spends winters in the Tibetan settlement at Ravanlga, in Sikkim, and goes to the mountains to help her husband — who lives with the yaks year-round — in summer.

桑登多瑪(Samten Doma)在北錫金山上擠牦牛奶。她在錫金的拉旺格拉藏人定居點過冬，夏天則去山上幫丈夫的忙——丈夫全年都跟牦牛住在一起。

Every morning, many Dokpas — who are Buddhist — pray and make offerings of fire and flour.

每天早上，很多牧民——他們是佛教徒——祈禱，用香火和面粉敬神。

Some of the last remaining Tibetan sheep in all of India belong to a Dokpa herder named Sing-ge, who during the summer stays at Phalung — at roughly 15,500 feet above sea level. Dokpas used to keep many sheep, but the regional governing council, called a “dzumsa,” which is led by the majority population in the area — the Lachenpas — set rules around the sale and slaughter of sheep, including fixing prices so low, it was no longer worth it for Dokpas to keep them. All except for one family sold theirs off.

全印度最后的藏綿羊，其中一些屬于名叫辛格(Sing-ge)的牧民，夏天他住在海拔大約1.55萬英尺(約合4724米)的帕龍(Phalung)。牧民們曾經(jīng)畜養(yǎng)過很多羊只，但是該區(qū)域治理委員會“dzumsa”——由該地區(qū)的人口占多數(shù)的拉欽巴人領(lǐng)導(dǎo)——制定了銷售和屠宰羊只的規(guī)則，包括把價格限定在很低的水平上，所以牧民們再養(yǎng)羊就不劃算了。除了一個家族之外，其他人都把羊賣掉了。

A Dokpa who now lives in Thangu, a village in north Sikkim that has a large number of of Indian Army bases. It feels far away from the mountain.

一個牧民現(xiàn)在居住在錫金北部的村莊丹古(Thangu)，那里駐扎著大量的印度陸軍。那里感覺遠離高山。