Tsekog Grasslands

Tsekog (རྩེ་ཁོག་), known as Zeku in Chinese, is located in Huangnan Tibet Autonomous Prefecture (རྨ་ལྷོ་བོད་རིགས་རང་སྐྱོང་ཁུལ།) in eastern Amdo (ཨ༌མདོ). Tsekog, 270kms/169 miles south of Xining (ཟི་ལིང་), has some of the best grasslands in Amdo and is filled with Tibetan nomads (pictured above). Though I had traveled through this area before, I had never spent any real time in the area until recently. A couple of weeks ago, I had the opportunity to live with a nomad family for a few days and had an excellent time. The family I stayed with was extremely hospitable and really enjoyed having me there for a visit. Tsekog (elev. 3600m/11,810 feet) is a mid-sized county with the Tibetan population being well over 95%. The town of Tsekog itself isn't anything special, but the grasslands where the nomads live are amazing (pictured below). During the summer, white and black Tibetan tents can be seen everywhere. Yaks and sheep cover the sides of the mountains. The area is truly one of the most beautiful grassland areas in all of Tibet during the summer. Only a handful of foreign tourists see this remote place each year, unlike Lhasa which sees hundreds and thousands of tourists each day. While Tsekog can be reached by bus from Xining, in order to stop and visit the nomads taking a private car is recommended. If you take the bus, all you can do is look at the nomads through the smoke filled windows.

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Comments

[Losang]

Thanks for the comment Judith. I think you are the only person I have come across who has compared Tibet with Texas and Oklahoma.

[judith]

It looks a lot like Oklahoma and Texas there. Except our cows are not that hairy. Very pretty.