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Post-1960s photographer Luo Hao,
spent 2 million at his own expense in the past 12 years,
founded the Tibetan Biodiversity Image Protection Organization,
led a team to take hundreds of thousands of photos of rare creatures,
is beautiful, rich and precious,
many plants and animals are recorded in images for the first time in China.
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spiny green velvet
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asian jackal China's first video recorded the various difficulties and even life and death tests during
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Santong Grassland
. When the images were compiled into a book and shared with young people,
that moment made him grit his teeth and continue to persevere.
The latest "Ring of the Himalayas" imaging survey results
- the photo album "Top of the World",
began planning in 2013, and then encountered the epidemic.
took eight years to finally come out.
conducted an exclusive interview with Luo Hao,
listened to his story about recording natural creatures over the past 12 years.
Readme: Luo Hao
Editor: Chen Qin
Editor: Chen Ziwen
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Lulang Alpine Meadow Pasture
One species of creature in the world becomes extinct about every 15 minutes. Especially in Tibet, climate problems, altitude problems, and sandstorm problems make its ecology even more fragile.
Tibet in the minds of many people is blue sky, white clouds, temples, snow-capped mountains, and yaks. But apart from these, there are actually many "elves". I hope that more people can see this microscopic biological world.
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Photographer and TBIC founder Luo Hao
In 2010, I established the Tibet Biodiversity Image Conservation Organization (TBIC), which is purely private and has been in business for 12 years. Relying on sponsorships, I also put in my own money, which amounts to one or two million, which is just a drop in the bucket.
I am not a biologist and have no professional knowledge in this area. I am a reporter and photographer by profession, and I don’t have much money. Images can be completed relatively independently.
I invited professional scholars, recruited ecological photographers, and many volunteers, and led the team. Over the years, I basically traveled throughout the entire northern slope of the Himalayas, took hundreds of thousands of photos, and published 11 popular science books.
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lynx
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Snow leopard
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Wild donkey
Why do we do biodiversity image protection in Tibet? Saying "love" is a bit silly, but this kind of love is rooted in my heart because I grew up in this land. It's like helping my family to find out what the family has. What exactly does my family have?
Due to many reasons such as geography, climate, altitude, etc., southeastern Tibet, western Yunnan, and western Sichuan are the regions with the most biodiversity in the world, not one of them.
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Lulang Forest in the Rain
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A sea of flowers composed of primrose and asters
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Trichosanthes racemosa
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Tower yellow
Namjagbarwa Peak is 57,782 meters high. From the top of the mountain to the water level, there is a drop of 5,700 meters. In between, there are virgin forests, secondary forests, alpine meadows, flowstone beaches , and snow lines . The biodiversity of the entire Himalayas is very rich.
Human beings are very insignificant in front of nature. We cannot prevent the disappearance of endangered species. By preserving them through images, we also want to provide a base investigation for future researchers. Let future generations see that there are such beautiful creatures living at such a high altitude.
The rare species here are rare and "rare".
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Endangered species Golden Wild Yak
I used to film a documentary called "Golden Wild Yak", which can still be seen on CCTV, only in the Ngari region of Tibet. The total number of existing ones, I estimate, is less than 500. What is the concept? At 2000, it should be a red endangered species, and the golden wild yak lives at an altitude of at least 4500 meters, which is quite rare.
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The Medog Insect is known as the "living fossil among insects"
In 1976, the Chinese Academy of Sciences found an insect called the "Medog Insect" in Medog, but no images remain. Now I search the Internet and find that all the images of Medog's wingless insects were taken by us in Yigong in 2012.
I remember I found it in a piece of rotten wood. I took the piece of driftwood out and took the photo on the side of the road. Don't underestimate this little bug. It has important academic value for the study of continental drift and is a living fossil among insects.
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Basongcuo
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Basongcuo’s Woodpecker
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Basongcuo’s Leopard Cat
Several years ago, in Basongcuo, Nyingchi Prefecture, someone from the government department came to me and asked me, “Teacher Luo, can you share the information you investigated with us?” I said, “Of course it’s no problem.” As a result, it was approved as soon as the information was received. Later, Basongcuo became the first batch of ancient villages to be protected in China.
My goal is the "Himalayan Biodiversity" survey, and as of today, I have not completed it, in fact it has been 12 years.
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primula
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dark red amethyst primula
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Single-leaf green velvet
The northern slope of the Himalayas In our country, we have done 90% of it, involving the southern slope of the Himalayas, Nepal, Bhutan, India, Pakistan must be included, it is a huge project.
Safety, funding, and the epidemic make the realization of this plan even more difficult. I'm almost 60 years old and want to hold on until the day I finish it.
The entire Tibetan biodiversity survey started in the winter of 2010.
We followed the northern slope of the Himalayas, from east to west, starting from the Brahmaputra Grand Canyon, and also passed through Basongcuo, Lulang, Chayu, Medog, Ali Mountain, Shenhu, Everest, Yadong, Chentang, Gamagou, Rongbugou, Jilonggou, etc.
In fact, the original plan was to do it twice a year, such as plants, insects, and birds, in the summer. Animals and poultry do it in winter. However, due to issues such as high altitude and funding, by 2018, we had conducted a total of 8 surveys.
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jackal
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bear monkey Tibetan subspecies
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Brown-tailed Red Pheasant
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Kestrel
The survey content includes mammals, plants, insects, crawlers, birds, poultry and underwater creatures. In the early stage of
, you must read a lot of information to make plans and do enough desk work. To plan the route, how to make it more economical and time-saving. After the budget is done, it’s mainly my business: finding money.
Each survey lasts a month at most. Prices in Tibet are quite high now. It costs a lot for dozens of people to live and eat, so we try to be as precise as possible. For example, how many days we need to photograph in one place and which important creatures we photograph need to be planned in advance.
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Team photographer during the shooting
We are like a big crew, taking tens of thousands of photos every time. I am like a director who requires us photography teachers, no matter what we shoot, we must use the best angle, the best light, and the most beautiful way to express it.
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red goral
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叶䗛
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Iron-headed snake
Over the years, our survey results start with the eastern part of the Himalayas, which is mainly virgin forest and subtropical rainforest. We photographed red gorals, ocelots, Medog beetles, leaf leaf , iron-headed snakes, etc.
The central part is marked by Mount Everest, and there are many virgin forests on both sides. In these places, we mainly photograph mammals, alpine plants, birds, insects, and climbers. The focus of the investigation is Green Velvet .
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orange soybean white butterfly
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silk butterfly
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Horned Shield Bug
The western part is mainly Ali, Tibet. We have photographed golden wild yak, lynx, silk butterfly... The wings of the silk butterfly are as thin as cicada wings. It is really incredible that such a small insect can survive at an altitude of more than 4,500 meters. Moreover, the wind in Ali is so strong that people can hardly stand at times. Why can a butterfly survive here? When I photographed it, I almost burst into tears.
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hidden wild ass
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white-lipped deer
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Black-necked Crane
Some cute animals, such as wild ass, white-lipped deer, Tibetan antelope, Tibetan gazelle, and black-necked crane, are actually relatively numerous in our eyes. We pay more attention to the rarer and more likely to become extinct creatures.
Like the black-necked crane, we can see it almost every time we go to investigate. It has a nature: monogamous and lifelong. In the summer, you can even meet its hatched cubs. The couple takes the cubs to the wetlands to look for food. If they are older, they will take the little black-necked crane to fly in the sky and exercise. In winter, they will migrate.
Of course, besides the good side, there are also life-threatening situations.
In 2011, we went to the Brahmaputra Grand Canyon to photograph bumblebees. The teacher who photographed mammals may not have known the characteristics of insects, so he went up to photograph them with a cigarette in his mouth. As a result, the bumblebees were smoked, and they began to attack us.
A bumblebee is as big as 3 bees and is 3-5 times more toxic than bees. A teacher happened to have his head shaved and was stung by 47 stingers on his whole head, which is quite dangerous. Later, I was scared when I thought about it. The place where we investigated was two hours away from the hospital by car. If we were sent to the hospital later, the teacher's life might be in danger.
Another dangerous incident that impressed me the most in my memory was when we encountered a landslide on the way back from Jilong Valley during the Everest expedition in 2018.
Fortunately, I still have some outdoor experience, and of course I learned it from an experienced Tibetan driver. "If you listen carefully with your ears and see with your eyes, you can avoid falling rocks." I used the walkie-talkie to summon our young people to push the big rocks to the side of the road, and then directed everyone to drive out of the landslide area one by one.
In short, there are always difficulties, but there is always something that encourages me to persevere.
In 2018, we conducted the last survey before the epidemic - the "Top of the World" Mount Everest survey.
It was originally planned to be done in 2015. Two or three months before the survey was to be carried out, an 8.1-magnitude earthquake occurred in Nepal. Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, is very close to the Tibetan border. Therefore, the Jilong Valley, Yadong Valley, Zhangmu Valley, and Chentang Valley we were going to were greatly affected, and we had to cancel the trip. This extension was three years.
When I decided to investigate Mount Everest, I had already thought of the title of the book, which was called "Top of the World". At that time, I had an idea that the cover should be a photo of a small insect, bird, or plant in front of Mount Everest. It was not photoshopped.
The time when we were doing the survey happened to be the rainy season for Mount Everest. It didn’t clear up for three consecutive days. On the morning of the fourth day, we broke camp and were ready to leave. I remember that when we arrived at Rongbuk Temple , there was a big bend. Once we turned out, we basically couldn’t see Mount Everest. I felt very sorry.
also looked at the rearview mirror out of habit, "Hey, why did that cloud in the sky on Mount Everest open a sunroof?"
braked and stopped. I shouted over the intercom, "Turn around, maybe there will be something to do today."
In less than an hour, the tip of Mount Everest was revealed. We were so excited that we took turns taking pictures, with the camera and the phone. After taking the picture, we had to make sure that there were no problems with the camera and the phone.
Suddenly, I felt very uncomfortable, so I ran down the mountain. As soon as I opened the car door, tears were already pouring down my face. With a crash, I collapsed.
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Green velvet under Mount Everest taken by Luo Hao
I am very embarrassed. I am an 8-foot man. I am very tall, 1.89 meters. I hid in the car and cried loudly. It is very unreal when I think about it now. There are many times in a person's life that he is an Iron Man, especially when he becomes a father or sets up a project, but in a moment, he may be particularly vulnerable. The book
was not easy to publish. It took 4 years to investigate and one year to compile. When editing, the COVID-19 epidemic started. It took two years to design and print. It really took 8 years to come out. The biggest highlight of
is that 10 new species are collected in one book. Maybe it’s God’s blessing, but we basically got everything we wanted to take.
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M. New record of Chinese images
I would like to introduce the green velvet again. British botanists discovered it at the beginning of the last century, and it became a star species at that time. Because it is from the poppy family, it grows particularly brightly and beautifully. It lives at an altitude of about 3000-4500 meters.
In the early years, ordinary people would pick green velvet, dry it, and sell it to Tibetan medicine factories for only 7 or 8 yuan a pound. I felt it was a pity. If you continued to collect it like this, it might become extinct. So I thought of a way to print the green velvet I photographed into posters and give them to the people.
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green velvet poster
They have a very good habit of posting beautiful things at home. I advised them that the flowers in the posters are the flowers they usually pick. They are very rare and cannot be sold for much money. They should stop picking them in the future. Slowly, at least in the places where I walked, the local people will no longer pick green velvet.
Therefore, doing biodiversity image protection also has some educational significance. The results of our investigation will be compiled into a book, which is not like the popular science books of the Chinese Academy of Sciences or the National Botany Institute, but combines easy-to-understand text with exquisite photos.
Speaking of which, in the past 12 years, I have wanted to give up no less than 5 times. Many teachers we surveyed jokingly called me the "9-bag elder of the Beggar Clan". I said, "Why 9 bags?" They said, "We spend a lot of money, so you have to carry 9 bags to go out for charity." In fact, this kind of joke is very sad.
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Luo Hao is working on "Top of the World" to publish and share
But when you take pictures of what you want to take, when the results come out, you step onto the podium and share the results with young people, that moment makes you grit your teeth and persist.
I especially like to give lectures. When I face children, I am thinking that if 10,000 children have listened, 1,000 children will be interested. Among these 1,000 people, there may be 100 people who want to learn about it. Then, will 10 people want to study this major when they grow up?
Will there be 5 people who will become experts or heads of environmental protection agencies in the future and take action to protect these rare creatures?
I think this is something that can definitely be inherited and sustained, and it is the meaning of it.
My love affair with Tibet seems to be endless in this life.
My father was a reporter accompanying the 18th Army when they liberated Tibet. I entered Tibet in 1970, when I was only 6 years old. I remember that people who came to Lhasa for pilgrimage at that time all wore big leather robes. On Barkhor Street in Lhasa, the place where people prayed was crowded with people.
My father was on business trips all year round, and one trip lasted for more than half a year. Later, he was infected with tuberculosis and passed away. I was not yet 18 years old at that time. At that time, my mother had to provide education for the three children at home. I felt it was too hard, so I took over my father's job and worked as a photographer.
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Luo Hao shot in Tibet when he was young.
In fact, in terms of photography, my father only taught me how to load film into the camera. But I have a very high starting point, and I am also influenced by it. The first time I took photography in my life, I used a Rolleiflex camera.
I was working and taking classes at the same time. It happened that in 1985, the Journalism Department of Renmin University of China offered its first photography class, and I was admitted. Before I went to Beijing to study, I was already a good photographer. I went to school mainly to broaden my horizons.
In the early 2000s, a friend introduced me to CCTV. At that time, there was a travel column called "Serving the People."Because of my understanding of the culture, religion, and humanities of Tibetan areas, when I was doing programs in Tibet, Qinghai, and Xinjiang, as an outdoor host, my Mandarin at that time was not as good as it is now, but they said it didn't matter. This is a feature.
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Luo Hao’s early masterpiece "Dialogue"
In 2008, I was I was the executive editor of " Tibet Human Geography " and suffered from depression . My classmates in Beijing still laughed at me, "You are just a 'son of the mountains', and you may not be able to adapt to life and work in the city."
I was afraid that something would happen, so I resigned from my boss and returned to Tibet. After I returned home, I was able to eat, sleep, and work again, so I threw away all the medicines prescribed by the doctor. I suddenly felt like a different person.
went back and forth with Tibet. I grew up there, left in the middle, and then went back. It was really like "after walking a long way, I realized that this is the end."
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Tibetans under Luo Hao’s early lens
I both love and hate Tibet. Love, that’s where I grew up, the eating habits are very adaptable to me, and I can speak the language.
What I hate is that I was only a teenager. My father died here due to poor medical conditions at the time and is still buried in Tibet. There is a knot in my heart. My daughter was born in Tibet and suffered from congenital heart disease . My emotions about her are extremely complicated and difficult to describe in words.
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Tibetan gazelle
I am not afraid of aging. I think the human body is just a skin. The reason why I am not afraid of aging is that I have done a lot of things. Look at me, who is almost 60 years old, and I still ride a motorcycle everywhere. I am not inferior to the young people.
Over the past decade or so, we have taken dozens of data on Tibetan biodiversity. When I can no longer walk or struggle, I will organize these treasures and donate them to the country and to professional institutions around the world that study this area.
If such good things can be passed down, I feel that I am very worthy.
All pictures provided by Luo Hao
