Short in stature and stout, they are well fed on the endless carpets of lush grass which characterize the high valleys of the eastern Tibetan Plateau. Their shaggy coats are a requirement of life at 11,000 feet above sea level.
Horses are the soul of the nomadic cultures of both Tibet and Mongolia.
Through the rise and fall of emperors and the ebb and flow of war and peace little has changed in the daily life on Tibet's highlands. The advent of communism and the dark years of the Cultural Revolution have had limited success in altering this culture that is as timeless as the seasons and as mobile as a horse or yak. Ringed by snowcapped mountains and ablaze with wildflowers, the grasslands are a horseman's dream and the summer home of hundreds of nomadic Tibetan families and their herds of yaks. Our Chinese guides, for whom this trip is an extraordinary adventure that parallels ours, do not share our delight. They know of the grasslands as the final resting place of thousands of Red Army soldiers.