Under the Himalayas

In ancient Asia, a land full of mysteries and civilizations, some people still lead a life in the most primitive way: they live, produce, carry things on shoulders, pick things by hands, travel on foot and migrate……they help develop a way of making a living and create a human landscape. With all the sufferings they bear, they have preserved what modern city-dwellers call “culture”. Yet, these people have only one simple goal - to survive. In the documentary series 'Under the Himalayas', a programme of five half-hour episodes, we shall leave solid footprints in five different places: taking the highest peak in the world Mount Everest as the centre of a circle, we shall lead the audience on voyage along the northwest region of China to the treacherous Huashan, going across Gan-Shaan plain and Xinjiang terrain, passing through Qinghai into the mysterious Tibetan area, crossing the border via the glacier for taking a break at the foot of Mount Everest in Nepal before arriving at the ancient but emerging country - India. On our way, not a satisfying life can be seen: labourious porters chanting lonesome but melodious old tunes at the ancient Huashan; scarred hands of the cotton farmers at Gobi Desert in Xinjiang; following Tibetan drivers jolting along the hundred-million-year-old glacier in the Ali prefecture at thousand meters of altitude; at the Sino-Nepalese border, the skinny backs of the Sherpa guides who are destined to challenge their physical limits; hardships and plight endured by barefoot rickshaw pullers with mixed feelings in Calcutta - the “dying city” built 150 years ago. When the journey of lives ends, we may gradually be able to savour the satisfaction from life.