The he end of one road is the beginning of another.roads are there to Heaven? How far is it to Heaven? Only those devout disciples know, and I am one of them. Tibet is my Heaven, a temple for my soul. I have been to Tibet more than thirty times, and have walked every road that leads into it. I have walked some of the roads many times, but each time yields new discoveries, new perceptions; I have walked some of the roads only once, but they have left an indelible mark on my memory, and I shall remember them my whole life.
The most unforgettable paths are the Sichuan-Tibet Highway and the Xinjiang-Tibet Highway. These two routes are like Tibet reaching out two tender and affectionate arms to the world, appealing to tranquility, prosperity and civilization, and inviting all those who travel towards her to pay homage.
They are unforgettable not only because they meet in Tibet, one reaching east and one reaching west, and cover the whole of it;and not only because in the summer of 2004 I walked the whole course in thirty-eight days, before returning to Beijing and falling ill for forty days. What is important is that on these two national highways, commonly called "the lifeline of Tibet", lived my beloved comrades-in-arms for many years.
The Xinjiang-Tibet Highway is toilsome, and the Sichuan-Tibet Highway is dangerous. Taking the Xinjiang-Tibet Highway is like cutting flesh with a blunt knife, whereas taking the Sichuan-Tibet Highway is like killing a man with a sharp one. The toll the Xinjiang-Tibet Highway takes on your health is done little by little, as if unconsciously. Conversely, the landslides, avalanches, and mud and rock flows on the Sichuan-Tibet Highway may very well snatch up a life into thin air.
In Tibet, I have experienced many life-threatening incidents. A seventeen-year-old new recruit once hopped down from a trans-port vehicle, and no sooner had his feet touched the frozen earth of the plateau than he passed out, and never woke up again. A young platoon leader began building work on "The Figer's Mouth"; I had just finished filming a shot of him working the pneumatic drill and was standing no more than ten or so meters away from him, when suddenly there was a landslide, and before he could shout out a word he fell in a pool of his own blood. I had a comrade who had enlisted from my home village and entered the plateau with me. We talked in the morning, and when suddenly afternoon was upon us, he left with his convoy for the turbulent Purlung Tsangpo River. He left in a snowy valley two tombs of personal effects and a love story, the retelling of which will never end.
They left, and I carried on. I missed them, and I missed Tibet, and so I went back again and again. Each time that I went to Tibet I felt my soul being thoroughly cleansed and purified. Each mile that I walk of the plateau road that leads to Tibet recalls to mind the youthful and lofty spirit of my comrade road-builders. Every footprint has an unknown, moving story behind it. Often I can't resist the desire to walk there again and tell people the story. Therefore, I wrote this book.
The twenty-fifth of December 2004 is the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of the Qinghai-Tibet and Sichuan-Tibet Highways. The reason I wanted to finish this book by then was because I wanted to present it as a gift to these two great roads, the highest in the world; to give it to those heroic armed detachments who paid a great price to ensure it ran unblocked, and continue to pay;and to dedicate it to my beloved comrades who now sleep beneath the snowy mountains!
If you walk in Tibet you will often encounter disciples on pilgrimages, who have come from distant places to knock their heads on the ground, each step measured by their own body, all the way to the sacred city of Lhasa. These are men who walk through Tibet on their heart. I also walked through Tibet on my heart. What separates me from them, however, is that the subject of their pilgrimage is a deity, whereas the objects of mine were the lofty and mortal souls of my comrades-in-arms.
Friends, let's go to Tibet. I'll use my heart, and you use your eyes.
10 December 2004
