A LIFE OF DRAMA

By Li Nan

On a cold winter night five years ago， Yu Jiang became a tree of Tibetan hadas. He was surrounded by the troupe of actors he had been working with and they draped dozens of the ceremonial scarfs around his neck as a token of their gratitude and blessing.

“All the actors brought hadas for me， and there were tears in their eyes. It was like a dream， a very， very nice one，” Yu， now Deputy Curator of Ngari Museum in Tibet Autonomous Region， told Beijing Review. It happened two days after a performance in Xian， Shaanxi Province on January 29， 2016 and remains one of the warmest moments in the 54-year-olds life.

Initially， Yu was a teacher and researcher in Shijiazhuang， capital of Hebei Province in north China， far from Tibet. He was also a part-time scriptwriter. Back then， he had no inkling that he would eventually script and produce The Saga of Ngari， the first historical drama on the rise and fall of Ngari Prefecture in Tibet， 1，520 km northwest of regional capital Lhasa， and with an average altitude of 4，500 meters above sea level. Now his involvement with Ngari and its culture has crossed three decades.

A magic vista

When he was a college student in 1986， Yu saw several photographs of the ancient Guge Kingdom in a magazine. The Himalayan kingdom existed from around the 10th to the 17th century in what is todays Ngari. “They were enthralling！” he said. “I wished that one day I could visit that area.”

In 1994， the Central Government rolled out a policy to provide greater support for Tibet. Some of the developed provinces were asked to help specific cities and counties in Tibet under a partnership assistance program. Hebei joined the program and was paired with two counties in Ngari. Many officials， teachers， doctors and technicians from Hebei volunteered to work in Ngari.

Yu made his first trip to Lhasa in 2005， one year before trains on the Qinghai-Tibet Railway started to run from Xining in Qinghai Province to Lhasa. But when he wanted to go to Ngari， he was told the way was complicated and without a local guide， the prefecture was difficult to reach. “I had to give up my plan，” Yu said.

In 2013， one of his friends， who was volunteering in Ngari， invited him over for a visit. So Yu finally went to Ngari and explored many ancient temple ruins. At one， he saw newly unearthed Buddhist scriptures dating back to the 10th century， was fascinated and volunteered to take part in their preservation. But the Ngari Cultural Affair Bureau declined his offer because only professional organizations were asked to help in the excavation and preservation of relics.