★ The film Kekexili: Mountain Patrol chronicles a story of bsod nams dar rgyas (བསོད་ནམས་དར་རྒྱས་), the model of the hero. It is not only a story of Kekexili and Tibetan antelopes, but also a story about reverence for life. (As the world’s third largest uninhabited area besides the South and the North Poles, Kekexili is referred to as the world’s third pole).
★ Since the late 1980s, Tibetan antelopes in Kekexili region have suffered from large-scale poaching never before, and their number has dropped sharply from 200,000 to less than 20,000. Thus the Tibetan antelope was listed as one of the world's most endangered species. In the face of crazy poaching, bsod nams dar rgyas assumed the sacred duty as a nature conservator at the cost of his life…

“That day, he didn’t go out hunting but dug a pit on the hillside to bury the Tibetan antelope together with its unborn child as well as his Tibetan matchlock musket…”

It is a Tibetan story I heard from others, which took place years ago.
However, each time I get a ride to pass through the uninhabited area in North Tibet, I cannot help thinking of the hero of the story—the Tibetan antelope that knelt down out of maternal instinct to protect its unborn child.
In those days, indiscriminate capturing and shooting of wild animals were not punished by law. Even if today, gunshots with lingering sound of sin are still lowly echoing in the corners of Kekexili out of reach for the Nature Reserve’s patrol guards. Tibetan antelopes, wild horses, wild donkeys, snow cocks and Mongolian gazelles, easily seen everywhere in those years, have now become rare and precious.
At the time, frequent North Tibet travelers could always see an old hunter with long hair down to his shoulders, bushy beards and a pair of Tibetan boots hover near Qinghai-Tibet Highway. The polished and shiny matchlock musket was hung on him and the two Tibetan yaks behind him were loaded with heavy preys.
The nameless old man traveled all around, departing from the snowy North Tibet in the morning and sleeping at river sources at night; cooking Mongolian gazelle meat over high heat to fill the stomach and drinking a bowl of ice and snow water to quench his thirst. Of course, the hide and skin harvested could be sold for some money. Apart from some money for his own consumption, the rest was more used to relieve the pilgrims he met on the road. Those Tibetans who kowtowed for pilgrimage to Lhasa are willing to walk a long road full of difficulties and dangers. Each time the old hunter relieved them, he made tearful wishes: May God bless you and keep you safe.
The old hunter was a paradox—a killer who was charitable.
...

Wang Zongren was born in Fufeng County, Shaanxi Province in 1939. He joined the army in 1958 and went to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. As Honorary President of the Chinese Institute of Prose, a member of China Writers Association and a national first-class writer, Mr. Wang is known as “the Son of Kunlun Mountain”. He has published over 40 works, and won the National PLA Literature Award, China Book Award and Bingxin Prose Award. Among others, Tibetan Military Book won the fifth Lu Xun Literature Prize. Other books such as The Tibetan Antelope Kneeling on Its Knees, Night Starry Flowers, Sky of Lhasa and A Woman Soldier’s Grave were selected into Chinese textbooks for primary and secondary schools. Moreover, The Tibetan Antelope Kneeling on Its Knees was also a masterpiece highly recommended in the 6th season of The Reader, a CCTV program, which was read by the director Lu Chuan full of emotion.

Chapter 1 The Tibetan Antelope Kneeling on Its Knees
Chapter 2 Kekexili, Earthly Paradise for Tibetan Antelopes
Chapter 3 Dawn in Kekexili
Chapter 4 That Bloody Day in the History of Kekexili
Chapter 5 Why There is No Tweedle in Kekexili
Chapter 6 Embracing Winter in Kekexili during Midsummer
Chapter 7 Distant Kekexili