Brett Jenks, Rare’s CEO, blogs about his trip to Asia, where he visited Pride campaigns taking place in China and Indonesia. Follow Brett’s adventures as he witnesses local conservation efforts to protect endangered species in Asia and shares how the Pride campaign model can support lasting conservation impact in this part of the world.

What a day.

I’m pretty speechless after all that we experienced today, and I’ve decided to just share the agenda and show you what I saw through photos. I had my first three cups of Yak butter tea, watched Tibet’s most sacred mountain appear out of the darkness at sunrise and visited one of the most humble and beautiful villages accessed carefully through what looks like a small crevasse in the side of a mountain.

Agenda for the day:

5:30 a.m. – Watch sunrise over Mount Kawagebo (Kawa Karpo), the sacred Tibetan and still-unclimbed mountain.

Local Tibetan pilgrims, who aim to climb just below the snow line and drink from the holy glacier water, burn incense and pay homage to the mountain, which they believe protects them and provides for them.

The story of Kawagebo is a powerful one, best told by our new friend, Mr. Ma. Recording this video at sunrise was one of the highlights of my trip to Asia.

A young Tibetan villager welcomes our party with a traditional water offering.

The Tibetan women of Yongzhi welcome our party to their small village. Few foreigners visit this village, which just got a dirt road wide enough for a car a year ago.

The Nature Conservancy’s Pride program manager, Huang Gang, who is currently studying community outreach techniques at Southwest Forestry College, Rare’s training center in Yunnan, is warmly welcomed into Yongzhi village.

2:00 p.m. – Visit demonstration households and meet community members.

Huang Gang and Mr. Bai, the chief architect behind the Tibetan Traditional Green Building project.

The proud builder of one of the Tibetan region’s first green homes.

Rare trustee Ruth Yeoh, helping create the sustainable building blocks of Tibetan green homes.

7:00 p.m. – Traditional Tibetan village celebration.

During the celebration, I did something I never thought I’d ever do in front of 200 Tibetan villagers at 13,000 feet above sea level.  You’ll have to read Nigel’s blog to find out more.

>>Brett’s Slideshow

>>Rare CEO Visits Asia – Arrival in Beijing

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 26th, 2009 at 4:23 pm and is filed under Pride. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.