China has begun plans to build the world’s biggest hydroelectric dam on the foothills of the Himalayas, the Tibetan river.
In November of last year, China’s state-owned media shared plans for a 60-gigawatt mega-dam on the Yarlung Tsangpo river in the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR).
Now with the aim of achieving carbon neutrality by 2060, Beijing has redoubled its efforts on its hydropower projects in Tibet, even though the dams have drawn criticism from Tibetan rights groups and environmentalists.
Tenzin Dolmey has never stepped foot on the Tibetan Plateau, but she was brought up with the stories of the great rivers and mountains, which form her ancestral home.
“Respect for nature is so deep-rooted,” said Dolmey, who was brought up among Tibetan exiles in India and now teaches Tibetan language and culture in Melbourne, Australia’s second-biggest city.
“When we would swim in the rivers, we were told to never use it as a bathroom, because there are river gods in the water.”
The Yarlung Tsangpo is of particular significance, as it represents the body of the goddess Dorje Phagmo, one of the highest incarnations in Tibetan culture.
Tempa Gyaltsen Zamlha, the head of Environment and Development at the Tibetan Policy Institute, says this reverence for the natural world was born from the Tibetan Plateau’s unique landscape and dates back centuries.
But since China, controlled by the Communist Party (CCP), annexed Tibet in 1950, Zamlha says Tibetans have lost all say in what happens on their land.
“We had absolutely no dams before Chinese occupation, not because we were not able to harness it, but because we had immense respect for the nature of the rivers,” he told Al Jazeera.
“There’s a very strict tradition that no one will go near certain streams or do anything that would disturb it. You don’t even need laws – every Tibetan abides by it.
“The Chinese will do anything to benefit their growth and this is very frustrating because Tibetans are not consulted.”