Dogai

Dogai lies in the Changtang, the high plateau and lake country stretching eastward from Ladakh across northern Tibet. Cold and altitude limit settled farming across this wide region. Changpa pastoralists move with their herds in response to seasonal pasture.

The climate sets the pace of movement. Summers are warm but short; winters are Arctic-like because of the height, and thunderstorms carrying hail can occur at any time of year. Grasses remain dead for eight or nine months, providing poor fodder even when herds can reach them. Changpa pastoralists therefore follow established annual routes rather than moving between distant climatic zones. Journeys of roughly 10 to 40 miles bring them back each year to the same encampments, often enclosed by stone walls for shelters or livestock corrals.

Dogai's setting is semi-arid, with thin vegetation and a wide horizon interrupted by lake basins and rock. Wild grazing and livestock herding both depend on the brief productive season. The region also lay on an important historical route between Ladakh and Lhasa, giving its sparse passages a wider significance. Here, mobility is a practical response to scarcity: camps, animals and carefully remembered routes allow life to continue across a high, cold and exposed plateau.