Martin Jacqueline Briggs - The Chiru of High Tibet

THE CHIRU
OF HIGH TIBET

THE CHIRU
OF HIGH TIBET

A TRUE STORY

written byJacqueline Briggs Martin

illustrated byLinda Wingerter

H OUGHTON M IFFLIN B OOKS FOR C HILDREN
H OUGHTON M IFFLIN H ARCOURT
B OSTON N EW Y ORK 2010

For my family,
who are part of all the journeys.
J. B. M.

For Grace Lin and in memory of Robert Mercer.
L. W.

Text copyright 2010 by Jacqueline Briggs Martin
Illustrations copyright 2010 by Linda Wingerter

All rights reserved. For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book,
write to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 215 Park Avenue South, New York, New York 10003.
www.hmhbooks.com

The text of this book is set in Truesdell.
The illustrations were painted with acrylics.
Map illustration by Stephanie Cooper

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Martin, Jacqueline Briggs.
The chiru of High Tibet / written by Jacqueline Briggs Martin ; illustrated by Linda Wingerter.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-0-618-58130-6
1. ChiruChinaTibetJuvenile literature. 2. Chang Tang Plateau (China)Description and travel
Juvenile literature. 3. Schaller, George B.TravelChinaTibetJuvenile literature.
I. Wingerter, Linda S., ill. II. Title.
QL737.U53M2274 2010
599.64dc22
2009049

Printed in Singapore
TWP 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
4500228160

Tibet is a large area in the center of the Asian continent, bordered by mountains. Since the 1950s it has been known as the Tibet Autonomous Region of China.

There is a place so cold,
it takes the fleece of five sheep to keep one person warm,
so high,
with so little rain,
the tallest tree is a shrub
that would not reach a grown man's knee.

This place is called the Chang Tang,
the northern plains of Tibet.
In this cold, windy country live the chiru.
Without the chiru (chee-roo)
there would be no story.

Chiru are the only animals of their kind.
They look like antelope
but are related to wild goats and sheep.

Chiru males have long black horns that might be taken for a
moving forest of tree branches when a group passes by.
Many Tibetans believe these horns
have special healing powers.

From hoof to shoulder, chiru are about as tall as baseball bats.

The chiru are also special for this:

Each summer, across the Chang Tang,
chiru females migrate in large groups
to faraway, secret areas to give birth.
Where are these secret places?
For hundreds of years,
even Tibetan nomads did not know.

Chiru wool is special, toothe warmest and finest in the world.
People call it shahtoosh, the king of wools.

Shawls made of shahtoosh are elegant, soft, and warm.
When wealthy women in the cities of the world
discovered these shawls,
chiru across the Chang Tang were killed for their wool.
The population shrank from one million chiru
to fewer than one hundred thousand.

In the wide, unpeopled plains,
who would care if the chiru disappeared?

Without George B. Schaller
there would be no story.

Chiru hair is one-seventh the thickness of human hair.

When George Schaller was a boy in Germany
he read books about Tibet and imagined himself
on the high plains.
When he grew up, he traveled the world studying wildlife
and made many trips to Tibet,
where he worked with Tibetan and Chinese scientists.

George Schaller was sure that if the chiru were not protected,
they would soon be extinct. Gone: nothing
left but bones and black horns.

He believed the secret place
where the Chang Tang chiru gave birth
must be protected from hunters.
But first he had to find this place.
He decided to follow the thousands of chiru
who would begin walking north
toward the Kunlun Mountains in late May.

Why can't chiru be sheared, as sheep are? They would freeze in their cold climate without their wool. They have, so far, not survived in captivity, so cannot be raised for their wool.