August 22 - The Litang Horse Festival

This year's event was a far cry from the last time we visited in 2003. Then it was arguably Tibet's premier horse-racing and dancing festival; after a fight between the locals and the police last year （the locals won）, the event was downgraded and organization put in the hands of a bunch of oafs from the Gaocheng Zhen local government. Attendance was therefore way down and the big race itself only atrracted about 30 entrants; in the past, it has run into the hundreds, while the tent city erected on the Litang plain was as big as the town itself.

Before reaching Litang, however, we had a lot of marching to do. At a stretch, we could even have declared Long March 6 over at the spot pictured below - the temple at Jiawa, where Xiao Ke's 6th Army Group met comrades from the 4th Front Army sent south to meet them by Zhang Guotao.

Oddly, given that Zhang Guotao was committed to swaying the 6th Army to his side in his struggle with Mao Zedong for Party and Army leadership, Zhang chose a former section of Mao's 1st Front Army to meet the 6th. Luo Binghui's 9th Army Group had been retitled the 32nd Army, and it was this force that gave Xiao Ke and his men their first information about the Zhang-Mao dispute. What exactly they said is lost in the mists of history. Xiao Ke is still alive, but at 99 and permanently hospitalized, he is unlikely to tell.

The monks at Jiawa made doubly sure of staying safe while the Reds passed through their area. They prepared food and other gifts for the Red Army, then fled to the hill, leaving a local woman in charge. She was made a leader of the new local Communist government, the so-called "Boba Government" which Zhang Guotao established in defiance of central Party opinion.

Another delicious bowl of tsampa, plus a big cup of yak-milk tea. The food of Litang Champions. 

The first day-and-a-half of the festival was devoted to this exciting and dangerous demonstration event, in which local cowboys swing from their saddles to pick up hada silk scarves. This causes at least a couple of serious injuries most years.

Guest Marcher Liu Lei joined us from Qigndao for the festival. She became the first woman ever to ride a mule down the exhibition track （in fact, Yang Xiao was also the first man to ride a mule, as no mule before Huami had ever entered）. The next day, Liu Lei was refused entrance to ride again on the grounds that letting a woman ride "would make the Buddha unhappy".

Yang Xiao puts on his own show for the locals. He later practised his own saddle-swinging and hada-gathering （from muleback）, but it was only when he tried mastering one of the local horses bareback that he really came to grief.

Our own saddle couldn't take the strain, and after being thrown off a horse for the second time, Yang Xiao's back felt much the same. We had to rest up for a few extra days until he was in shape to continue marching.

This young American, Chris, is now the most famous foreigner in Litang. Generations from now, they will still tell of the foreigner who rode a horse down the exhibition track, tore his shirt off and waved it above his head while crying something like "Yee-ha". Chris is only 25, but has been working on that beard for eight months.

Chris also determined to enter the big race. He gave Didi 400 yuan to rent this beast （the same animal that crocked YX's back） and while he couldn't officially enter, he joined the racers at half-way. Didi said, "If it throws you off, I'm not responsible". Chris didn't wait to be thrown - at one point his legs were so tired and the horse so out of control that he threw himself off. He eventually rode in last - to great acclaim.

And they're off! The big race gets under way in mass confusion - everyone was still waiting for some yaks to be cleared from the course when the starting gun went off.

The champion racer, owned and ridden by a 30-year-old fellow from Zangba named Tseren. He took home 11,000 yuan as the winner.

This is from 2003, when there was a grand dance competition that attracted teams from all over the grasslands. There was nothing like this this year, when the few dancers were locally organised and non-competitive - and not very good.

You won't see this anymore, either. In 2003, all the male dancers wore real furs, but following a speech by the Dalai Lala criticising the practise, most Tibetans got rid of their animal skins and furs and now refuse to wear them.

The little tw*t is Zhanyang, 17, a prize-winning singer who was supposed to perform at the festival but got drunk every night with his mates instead and couldn't get up in time to sing. He made a great song-and-dance about making friends with us - and then stole one of our cameras and both walkie-talkies. If anyone bumps into him, make sure you give him a slap and ask for our stuff back.