Alashan chronicle

"A distant mirage, the camel team is like a moving mountain, the mysterious dream is in the horizon, and the figure of Abba is looming ..." This widely sung song, Alashan like the sky, evokes countless wanderers' nostalgia for their homeland with its deep homesickness, and also reflects the status of camels in Alashan people's hearts.

Alashan people and camels grow together and migrate, becoming the most intimate survival partners, and the camel culture derived and accumulated from this has become the most dazzling flower of Alashan culture.

because of my work, I have worked and lived in Alashan for more than three years. In my mind, the bactrian camel in Alashan is more like a "white princess" standing in the lonely smoke of Alashan desert.

what does the "white princess" in Alashan look like? What does the princess like to eat and drink? What's the princess's little temper? How does the princess love? How does the princess protect her mother's grassland? I have heard some stories from Alashan herdsmen, and I would like to share them with you here.

1.

Camels originated in North America and later evolved and migrated to three regions on the earth. Bactrian camels in Alashan, Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, China, dromedaries in West Asia, and alpacas in Australia and New Zealand. It is said that these three kinds of camels can still have children with each other, but I have some doubts about it.

When I was a child, I recited Mulan's words "I would like to borrow a famous camel to send my children back to my hometown". This camel refers to the camel in the west of Alashan. "Twelve Elephants of the Ming Camel" is a complete sketch of a bactrian camel. It may be hard for you to believe that all the twelve animal signs are reflected in camels.

Camel is an elf species, and its figure embodies the outstanding features of twelve zodiac signs: mouse ears, cow hooves, tiger backs, rabbit mouths, dragon necks, snake eyes, horse teeth, sheep noses, monkey heads, cockscomb, dog legs and pig tails, which are typical of twelve animals.

The camel can look far at its height and neck. Camels have a keen sense of smell. They can find water and avoid sandstorms. Nose will be closed to prevent dust from entering; I'm not afraid of scalding my legs. Toes are wide and open without sinking; A hump on the back is a warehouse for storing nutrients.

Camels can walk slowly in the desert wind with their eyes closed, and walk out of the storm calmly without getting lost. Alashan herders have carefully observed that in the dark wind and sand, no other animals dare to take a step against the wind except camels. Camels move forward accurately in the storm, thanks to their good endurance and the memory of identifying directions in their minds. When encountering a storm in the desert, the camel will use its body as a barrier for its owner, dig a big pit with its hoof webbed and arch its mouth for its owner to escape, and it will lie on its side to block the storm that covers the sky. If there is no one, a group of camels will lie in a castle, borrow each other's armpits, wait for the wind and sand to go away, and wait for the clear sky in the desert to be reconciled.

Zoologists have found that the bactrian camel in Alashan has double or triple eyelids and thick long eyelashes. These layered eyelids and thick eyelashes can form a safe barrier when the eyes are closed, blocking the raging sandstorm and protecting the eyes from any harm. Camel's nose function is perfect, not only can it smell the information of aquatic plants several kilometers or even more than ten kilometers away against the wind and wind, but also can adjust its breath at will to close its nostrils as freely as a gate when dust flies, and keep out every tiny grain of sand flying in front of it. Ruthless storms, rough sand, in front of these soft, open and close barriers, there is nothing to do, and finally disappeared into the vast expanse. The philosophy of living with softness and the survival of the fittest has been applied incisively and vividly in the survival and life of camels, just right.

Camels have amazing memories. The reason why they can't get lost in sandstorms is that they keep their eyes wide open in clear skies and fine days, and they can incorporate the world into their cognition and memory in every detail, and they can also incorporate the landscapes of Fiona Fang's 1-2 square kilometers into their hearts. Its super memory is positively related to watching and observing more at ordinary times. If you watch more, you will use your own thinking to analyze it. If you watch more, you will strengthen your own way of memory, and you will understand many truths of the world, and you will also learn to be good with human beings, and thus understand human philosophy.

Second,

Water is the source of life. Camels are unusually sensitive to water, and they can accurately find the water source one or two meters underground. In summer, the place where camels lie down and rest must be close to the water, so that the moisture of the water can help them cool down. Herdsmen have mastered this characteristic of camels. If they are short of water when grazing, they will dig water with shovels where camels lie, and soon there will be clear springs bubbling out to nourish a hot and dry season. Grass is a necessary food to sustain life, and the tall camel is actually a herbivore, which makes many people don't understand. After the soft grass is eaten by the camel, it can gather huge energy, support the huge body to run and run quickly in the desert, and make small waves like water waves under the fins of the thick and solid pier.

The camel's huge size determines its food quantity. Instead of being picky about food, what it eats in its mouth is food, and what it swallows after ruminating is energy. Therefore, there is a spiny plant in the desert, wasteland or Gobi, which is the favorite of camels. Therefore, this plant is named "camel thorn" after camels. As the name implies, camel thorns are covered with sharp thorns, but the camel sticks out its tongue, and these thorny branches and leaves smoothly enter the camel's mouth and become delicious food. Pearls, Nitraria tangutorum and leaves of Populus euphratica on Alashan Yuan Ye are all delicious meals for camels.

Third,

As the saying goes, the eyes are the window of emotion. It is said that camels often have tears in the corners of their eyes. Is this true?

When the host's daughter got married, she secretly shed tears; The master's family was ill, and he also secretly cried. Therefore, Mongolians in the past would never eat camel meat. Camel is one of the three animals mentioned in the Bible that people can't eat. The other two are rabbits and pigs. Camels were originally padded feet with five hard hooves, but later the Swedish taxonomist Linnaeus simply classified camels as cloven-hoofed, apparently never seen Alashan bactrian camels.

Anyone who has looked at a camel's eyes will praise her for her beautiful eyes. The camel seldom blinks, but always looks at you intently. It is so sincere and fiery that people are willing to be friends with it. In a few cases, people's shadows will appear in camel's eyes, and most of the time, camel's eyes take in blue sky and white clouds. In Alashan herdsmen's jokes, the most amazing thing about Alashan bactrian camel's eyes is not that it can resist the wind and sand freely, but that it can accurately identify people's good and evil. The person who can see his own shadow in the camel's eyes is a good person, and this person's heart is kind and he is a person who can do something. People who can't show their own shadow in camel's eyes have filth and ugliness hidden in their hearts, and their minds are stubborn and cannot be made. Because of this, many people will look for their own shadow in the eyes of camels and correct their mentality, behavior and temperament. Good people will make their shadows last here, and bad people will try to improve themselves and make their shadows appear in camel's eyes. Camels appear in many novels and movies. Such as San Mao's novels and mongolia film's "Weeping Tears".

The mother camel in dystocia gave birth to a small white camel. Once the mother refused to feed, the herders would send her children to a distant place to invite an old musician. When the melodious Ma Touqin and the long tune sounded, the mother camel shed tears. At this point, the child's camel's small mouth reached out to his mother's breast.

Camels are very emotional animals. When it is sick, it will quietly hide in a place where no one finds it, and will not come back until it is well. When it feels like leaving this world, it will return to the place where it was born as a child.

someone in Alashan asked me why camels often have tears in their eyes, just because of their deep love for Alashan. In the eyes of herders, camels are like their children, and every camel has a name. I once visited the herdsmen in Alashan, and they thought it was a normal thing. No matter how many children there were, the mother would remember the names of her children.

Fourth,

One of the great disasters on the grassland in winter is that the camel is in estrus. The estrus cycle of animals is a sign to measure the evolution of animals. Estrus cycle, primates about 365 days; Dog and horse; Female seasonal estrus; Male and female ruminants are in seasonal estrus. Camels need 12-14 months to get pregnant. And "cats, three dogs, four pigs, five sheep and six rabbits have a nest in January."

In order to make their camels estrus early, herders often fill their camels with wine. It seems a little inhuman to put a small flag on the camel's head after drinking. When a camel mother gives birth to a baby, she will run around when her stomach hurts. It really makes me feel sad and moved.

5.

Herdsmen in Alashan once said to me, "Without wolves, horses become lazy, without bactrian camel desert, Haloxylon ammodendron will not grow." Camels have made special contributions to desert ecological protection, and they are free pruning engineers of Haloxylon ammodendron leaves in Alashan. Secondly, camels also contribute to killing rats in grasslands, not to mention fertilizing them.

The 27,-square-kilometer Alashan Plateau is composed of mountains, wasteland, desert, Gobi and other landforms. There are two-thirds of bactrian camels in Alashan, living in the deserts of Wulanbuhe, Tengger and Badain Jaran, and it has also achieved the reputation of "Hometown of Bactrian Camels".

People say that the desert is a sea of death, which is obviously biased. Although the desert area is dry, with thousands of miles of bare fields and sparse vegetation, it is indeed a magnificent home arranged by God for camels. Despite the harsh environment, no camel has abandoned the desert. On the contrary, the desert is a paradise for camels to live in. Camels can always find a place to adapt to their own survival and forge their own way of life in the desert. From time to time, the desert is full of strong winds, flying sand and stones, and many animals have fled or died in the desert. However, the bactrian camel in Alashan always stands extremely safely in the wind, facing the confidence and towering of the wind, standing into a frame of scenery, a culture and a lofty spirit, and people also position this unyielding standing as the high point of a spiritual coordinate.

In fact, grassland is an ecosystem composed of "people-livestock-grassland", and artificially dividing the relationship among them is the greatest damage to this ecosystem. After grazing prohibition, the number of bactrian camels in Alashan decreased from 25, in 1981 to 7, now. Protecting Haloxylon ammodendron is protecting bactrian camels, and vice versa.

"A distant mirage, camel teams are like moving mountains, mysterious dreams are in the horizon, and Abba's figure is looming; In the vast golden desert, camel bells brought me back to my childhood, and a lullaby sounded in my ear, and my grandmother's voice suddenly approached and drifted away.

I especially like this song "Alashan like the sky"? But only listening in Alashan will have a more different feeling.