These include the Ruddy shelduck, Bar-headed goose, Black-necked crane, Brown-headed gull, white stork, redshanks, as well as birds like Tibetan snow finch, hoopoe, wool leg sand grouse and a number of larks.

This holy retreat site having especially rich vegetation and unusually tall trees because of its better water supply due to underground seepage from the wetlands to the river.

But by the 1990s the environmental costs to Lhasa were mounting with extensive garbage, polluted water, and a cement factory at the far northern terminus of the wetlands.

Initiating conservation action came from an American environmental worker, Chun-Wuei Su Chien, then in charge of China programs for the international nonprofit organization, Future Generations [1].

Chien approached the Mayor of Lhasa, a review was conducted by the municipality with study visits led by Chien to community-based conservation projects in the United States looking at high altitude wetlands protection in places like Aspen Colorado, and then the president of Future Generations, Daniel C. Taylor, led a systematic planning endeavor with the city government.

[7] Added to this vision of preservation of the wetlands was the development of ‘‘linkas’’ for public picnic use (a long-standing and much-treasured Tibetan custom).