阿爾泰草原大旱威脅哈薩克牧民

ALTAY, China — It has been a bad year for the big-tailed sheep. The grass in the high mountain pastures here in northwest China has been sparse, and the sheep have not eaten well. They are scrawny. That means the Kazakh herders have suffered, too.

中國阿勒泰——對於大尾羊來說，這是糟糕的一年。中國西北部的高山草地牧草稀疏，羊羣吃不飽，全都骨肉如柴。這意味着哈薩克族牧民的日子也不好過。

"The drought has affected everyone," one herder, Aijamal, 32, who like many others here uses one name, said on a recent afternoon as she rode horseback and drove hundreds of sheep across a barren plateau. "We can't sell the sheep for the same price we did before."

最近的一個下午，32歲的牧民艾賈瑪(Aijamal)騎馬驅趕羊羣穿過一片貧瘠的高原。“所有人都受乾旱影響，”她邊騎馬邊說說。“我們的羊賣不出以前的價格了。”她像這裏的很多人一樣，只使用單名。

Sheep that wholesalers bought for 1,000 renminbi, about $160, last year are commanding only 830 renminbi now, she said. The price drop has come as a big blow to the nomadic Kazakh herders whose families have for decades produced the most famous sheep in China.

她表示，批發商去年花1000元購買的羊現在只值830元。價格下跌給哈薩克族遊牧民造成巨大打擊，這些遊牧家庭數十年來一直在飼養中國最知名的羊。

And the season for fattening up the sheep is at an end. Across this remote area of pristine grasslands and alpine forests, along the southern slopes of the Altai Mountains, nomads are in the middle of their annual multiweek autumn migration, as they bring their families, yurts and livestock down from the high pastures to lower altitudes for the winter. They are using horses, camels and flatbed trucks for transport, and horses and motorcycles to herd their animals. Clouds of dust rising from the steppes signal nomads on the move.

羊只長膘的季節已經到了尾聲。牧民們每年秋季都會花費數週時間進行遷徙，他們正沿着阿爾泰山南山坡穿越未遭破壞的草地和高山林區，帶着家人、圓頂帳篷、牲畜從高山草地向海拔較低的地方遷徙過冬。他們利用馬、駱駝及平板貨車充當運輸工具，用馬和摩托車驅趕牲畜。草原上飛揚的塵土說明遊牧民正在遷徙。

This lifestyle has continued for centuries here, north of the Xinjiang region's desolate Dzungarian Basin and near China's borders with Mongolia, Kazakhstan and Russia, despite official efforts to force nomads to settle in newly built villages. The nomads pass the winter near the lower towns before making the reverse migration once the snows begin melting.

儘管政府迫使遊牧民遷入新建的村莊，在新疆北部的準噶爾盆地，以及中國與蒙古、哈薩克斯坦和俄羅斯的邊境附近，這種生活方式已經持續了幾個世紀。遊牧民們在緯度較低的城鎮過冬，然後在雪開始融化時再進行反向遷徙。

A history museum in Altay pays tribute to this way of life. "The Altay region has been a paradise for nomadic peoples since ancient times," the text on one display says. "The Tiele, Scythians, Xiongnu, Xianbei, Rouran, Tujue, Mongol and Kazakh have lived here successively for thousands of years and created a splendid grassland culture. They have contributed to the history of not only the Altay region but also of Xinjiang and China."

阿勒泰的一個歷史博物館向這種生活方式致以紀念。“阿勒泰地區自古以來就是遊牧民族的天堂，”一件展品的文字說明寫道。“鐵勒人、斯基泰人、匈奴人、鮮卑人、柔然人、突厥人、蒙古人及哈薩克族人相繼在這裏生活了數千年，並創造了輝煌的草原文化。他們爲阿勒泰地區及新疆和中國的歷史做出了貢獻。”

The big-tailed sheep of the region, especially those near Fuhai Lake, have been prized for more than 1,000 years, according to the Ministry of Commerce website. During the Tang dynasty (618 to 907 A.D.), rulers in the area sent sheep as tribute to the imperial court in Xi'an. During the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, the region's mutton was served as official food to athletes from Muslim countries, according to an Altay government website.

商務部網站顯示，該地區——特別是福海附近——的大尾羊早在1000多年前就受到人們的追捧。唐朝時期（公元618年-907年），當地統治者曾將福海大尾羊作爲貢品獻給唐朝宮廷。阿勒泰政府網站聲稱，在2008年北京夏季奧林匹克運動會期間，阿勒泰羊肉成爲穆斯林國家運動員的官方指定食物。

Adult sheep can weigh more than 300 pounds, making them ideal for meat production. The sheep are known for tails that weigh more than 20 pounds, where they store fat for the winter.

成年羊體重高達300多磅（約合136公斤），因此非常適合做成肉製品。大尾羊以重量可達20多磅的尾部著稱，大尾羊依靠尾部儲存脂肪過冬。

One recent day, Aijamal — dressed in a turquoise sweater and a red head scarf (Kazakhs are mostly Sunni Muslims) and astride a white horse — was watching over 200 sheep. Her two children were in a mud-walled shelter nearby. She and her family were in the middle of their migration, driving the sheep down to winter pastures near a riverside village.

近日，身穿青綠色毛衣、頭戴紅色頭巾（哈薩克族人大多數是遜尼派穆斯林）的艾賈瑪騎着一匹白馬，看管着200只羊。她的兩個孩子待在附近的泥牆房中。她和家人正在進行遷徙，要將羊羣趕往一個河畔山村附近的冬季牧場。

There, they would hire other herders to look after the sheep until the spring. That is an increasingly common practice among some Kazakhs, especially those who have traded their nomadic occupations for other pursuits.

他們會在那裏僱傭其他牧民看管羊羣，直到春天。在一些哈薩克族人中，這種做法越來越普遍，特別是那些放棄遊牧，從事其他工作的人。

"We'll stay here for a few days," Aijamal said as she got off her horse. "Then we'll go down after the sheep have eaten."

“我們會在這兒待幾天，”艾賈瑪邊從馬上下來邊說。“羊羣吃完草後，我們將繼續往下走。”

She said she and her husband had just sold 80 lambs to two wholesale meat merchants, ethnic Uighurs who were among the few Uighur buyers visiting this year. Officials in Xinjiang have been restricting their movements because of a surge in ethnic violence.

她表示自己和丈夫只向兩名維族肉類批發商賣出了80只羔羊，他們是今年前來買羊的爲數不多的維族買家。由於民族衝突加劇，新疆地區的官員限制維族人的活動。

Many Uighurs resent rule by the Han, the dominant ethnic group in China, and hundreds of people have been killed this year amid violence in Xinjiang. Chinese officials blame terrorist groups among the Uighurs, though insurgency experts and scholars of Xinjiang say they have seen no evidence of a widespread terrorist influence.

許多維吾爾人對漢人的統治感到不滿。漢人在中國的人口中佔多數。今年已經有數百人在新疆的暴力衝突中死亡。中國官員將這些事件的責任歸咎於維吾爾人中的恐怖組織，不過，研究叛亂活動和新疆問題的專家和學者稱，他們沒有發現恐怖主義在新疆擁有廣泛影響力的證據。

The shortage of buyers has also contributed to the drop in the price of sheep, Aijamal said. "Before, the Uighurs would come north from Urumqi to buy our sheep," she said, referring to the capital of Xinjiang, a vast region that makes up one-sixth of China. "But now many of them can't come."

買家的稀缺還導致羊肉價格下降，艾賈瑪說。“以前，維吾爾人會從烏魯木齊北上來買我們的羊肉，”她說。新疆地域遼闊，佔中國國土面積的六人之一，烏魯木齊是其首府。“但是現在，很多人都來不了。”

But the drought has been a much bigger problem. This year, it killed 8,000 animals and destroyed 3,800 square kilometers of crops in northern Xinjiang, according to a report in the state news media. Three million animals lack sufficient drinking water. The Civil Affairs Bureau said 800,000 people were affected, and officials estimate the economic loss at 4.7 billion renminbi, or $760 million.

而更加嚴重的問題是乾旱。官方媒體的一篇報道稱，今年，乾旱共導致新疆北部8000頭牲畜死亡，3800平方公里的莊稼受到破壞。目前，有300萬頭牲畜缺乏足夠的飲用水。民政局稱，受災人數達80萬人，官方估計，經濟損失可達47億元人民幣，合7.6億美元。

Some nomads were leaving earlier than usual from the summer pastures so their sheep could graze lower down. North of the town of Burqin, near a mountain pass, a man named Los'han was dismantling his yurt with his family and tossing their furniture into the back of a white flatbed truck. Nomad families sometimes split the daily rental rate of $100 or more for a truck and driver for their migration.

一些遊牧者比往常更早地離開了夏季牧場，好讓羊羣到南邊吃草。在布爾津縣北部的一個山口附近，一位名叫羅斯漢(Los'han)的男子正在和家人拆掉氈帳，同時把家當扔上一輛白色的平板卡車。在遷徙時，遊牧民族家庭有時會合租一輛卡車和司機，分擔每天至少100美元的費用。

"My older brother is watching our sheep in the mountains," said Los'han, 40. "He'll bring them down to join us."

“我哥在山上照看我們的羊，”現年40歲的羅斯漢說。“他會把羊羣趕下山和我們匯合。”

East of Altay, in the area of Koktokay, a nomad on horseback pointed to some of his 200 or 300 sheep. Way too thin, he said.

在阿爾泰東部的可可托海地區，一個遊牧者騎在馬上，指着他的一些羊說，太瘦了。他總共有兩三百頭羊。

"Soon there won't be any grass," said the man, Urzbek, 62. "Maybe next year there will be none at all, because it hasn't rained."

“很快就沒有草了，”這個名叫烏爾茲別克(Urzbek)的62歲男子說。“可能明年就什麼草都沒有了，因爲沒下過雨。”

He lives with his family in one of a half-dozen white yurts by a road leading to the Koktokay nature park, a Yosemite-like valley with towering granite peaks through which the Irtysh River flows to the Arctic Ocean. In the park, nomads were coming down from the summer pastures each day with camel caravans.

他和家人住在通向可可托海國家地質公園的公路旁的一座白色氈帳裏，周圍還有五座這樣的氈帳。可可托海國家地質公園是一個類似約塞米蒂谷的地方，有高聳的花崗岩山峯，額爾齊斯河經由這裏流入北冰洋。在公園裏，每天都有遊牧者帶着駱駝隊從夏季牧場走下來。

On this morning, Urzbek's daughter walked among their sheep to help ensure that none of them wandered off. A half-dozen camels that his family owns loped in formation, tied together, near the dry hills. Then there was the horse on which Urzbek rode. "My horse is more important than my life,” he said.

這天早上，烏爾茲別克的女兒走在羊羣中間，幫助確保不會有羊走散。他家養的六隻駱駝綁在一起，保持着隊形，在乾旱的山巒附近闊步前行。跟在後面的是騎在馬背上的烏爾茲別克。“我的馬比我的命還重要。”他說。

He began riding off. "I need to keep the sheep in line," he said. He whistled and cracked a short whip to get the sheep moving.

他開始策馬遠去。“我得把羊羣看好，”他說。他吹了一聲口哨，甩響了短鞭，驅趕着羊羣。