Yangbajing is an 'electricity town' built around a thermal power plant 87 kilometers ( 54 miles) north of Lhasa, halfway to Damxung. The altitude is 4,300 meters ( 14,100 feet). Yangbajing borders on a flat area of hot springs covering 16 square kilometers ( six square miles). Steam and geysers can be seen rising from the plain. These feed two new geothermal electricity generating stations and a huge geodesic greenhouse that uses warmth and humidity from the team to produce unseasonal vegetables. If nomads are in the vicinity, yaks graze right up to the wire fence, apparently unperturbed by the racket of gushing steam and modern technology on the other side. The sprawling town on the left of the road consists of houses and private facilities for workers at the power plant. A roadside village next to it provides services for truck drivers who stop at this junction on the northern route to Shigatse, now rarely used.

The power plant, which supplies a large part of Lhasa's electricity, is the first and biggest thermal development in China, established in 1976. The electricity produced is vital to Tibet's economic development, as all other kinds of fuel, except yak dung and wood, have to be trucked in. The plant can be visited by arrangement with CITS. A technician answers questions and conducts a guided tour of the steam-powered generators, cooling towers and steam-heated greenhouses where vegetables grow throughout the year.

The road runs northeast from Yangbajing through a long, straight, upland valley usually dotted with nomad encampments and herds of yaks. The nomads who roam over vast areas of northern Tibet make up abut a quarter of the population of central and western Tibet. They produce the wool that has been Tibet's chief export for centuries and contribute an essential part of the country's diet in meat and dairy products. It is hard to be precise about their numbers, as nomads sometimes live a half-settled life, especially in eastern Tibet. One tribe with the same name and same chief may be engaged in two entirely different occupations, sharing and exchanging roles as farmers and shepherds. Some nomads have fixed winter homes where they return for a few months a year. Others scarcely see four walls during their whole lives.

Nomads are big, handsome people- tough, cheerful and independent. At sacred places throughout Tibet they stand out in their sheepskin chubas ( long coats) as the most ardent and joyous of pilgrims. They put high value on honesty and can dispense rough justice. It is said that nomads always return a kindness twofold- and repay a bad turn twofold.

Nomads live with family or relatives in easily movable black tents made of yak-hair felt or woven wool. Tents invariably contain a fire-pit for cooking and an altar. Women and children usually work close to camp, but men cover long distances alone on horseback. A typical family commands an impressive array of skills and can live for long periods without touching settled areas, their only outside essentials being tea and tsampa.

The animals-yaks, sheep and goats, often numbering in the hundreds, are the family's private property. Men, women and children all use a sling and pebble with incredible accuracy to control the herd's movements, and dogs give some assistance, too. The woolen sling cracks like a whip as a pebble files from its leather pouch, and a moment later a straying yak can be seen galloping at full speed back to its herd.