Silk Road lost & found

• Source: The Global Times
• [22:40 May 12 2009]
• Comments

The Wakhan Corridor: this rugged mountain pass links China with Afghanistan.
Photo: Zhang Nanyi

By Zhang Nanyi

A torn plastic bag of Persian naan bread, a wooden staff, 50 assorted sheep, goats and yaks worth about 20,000 yuan ($3,000): these represent the bulk of the possessions he is taking on his 12-hour ride into the snowy Wakhan Corridor that – barely – links China with Afghanistan.

Sporting his traditional hat against the cold, dry wind and average annual temperatures of 3.3°C, Hanjar said he will now camp alone for a summer month on the rugged mountain pastures more than 4,000 meters above sea level where he and his animals have experience of weathering the violent vicissitudes of neighboring countries.

Hanjar, 35, has herded most of his life in the Tashkurgan Tajik Autonomous County, one of the newly developing counties of Kashgar Prefecture in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

For a hardy Tajik shepherd like him, there might be more lucrative employment than grazing: working as a part-time border guard.

"I'd love to be one if only it were possible," said Hanjar. "The border needs more guards. Plus, there's a monthly salary of 150 yuan."

Hanjar, Tajik shepherd hits the Wakhan corridor for summer grazing. Photo: Zhang Nanyi

The average income of the county's 33,000 residents last year was 15,000 yuan. About 87 percent are Tajik like Hanjar, with Han less than 4 percent, according to Party secretary Zang Aiwu, a member of the county's Han ethnic minority.

Hanjar can't be a guard: he doesn't speak Chinese. The Tajiks of China speak a kind of unwritten Eastern Iranian language, a considerable distance from the mandarin lingua franca of police and army patrolling this sensitive border region searching for terrorists and refugees from neighboring Pakistan, Afghanistan and Tajikistan.

Sat on the eastern ledge of the Pamir Plateau where the Kunlun, Kara-Kunlun, Hindu Kush and Tian Shan mountain ranges meet, Tashkurgan county's strategic passes boast a proven potential for trade. Total imports and exports through the county last year exceeded $140 million yuan: mainly groceries and household goods like food and carpets.