Wolf Tracks in Qiangtang: Zhaxi and His Tibetan Mastiff Protect the Antelope Herd

[Synopsis]

In 2010, in the uninhabited Qiangtang region of Ali, Tibet. By the swamp where poachers killed his father, Zhaxi takes up his father's bloodstained patrol log and a Tibetan mastiff named Zhuoma, becoming a guardian of the wilderness. But what awaits him is not his father's glory. It is the gun barrels of the international poaching syndicate Wolf Totem, blizzards plunging to minus 40 degrees, and dozens of skinned Tibetan antelope carcasses in Sulfur Valley. When Zhuoma is gravely wounded saving him, and Wolf Totem carves its mark into his motorcycle's fuel tank, Zhaxi grips the bullet casing his father left him as a talisman at the edge of a cliff and vows to the heavens: “I will protect the creatures of this land as I protect my family.” This is a wilderness epic written in blood and fire, about how a boy becomes a man, how a Tibetan mastiff becomes a hero, and how a group of people build an everlasting boundary marker with their own flesh and blood atop the roof of the world. The wind will remember. The antelope will remember. Someone once stood here and defended them to the death.

[Highlights] ★ Immersive, authentic details of protecting the plateau: patrol logs, Tibetan mastiff training, motorcycle modifications, and high-altitude survival ★ A moving bond between man and dog: Zhuoma twice risks her life to save her master, and she and Zhaxi are each other's other half ★ A rousing ensemble story: the legacy of veteran rangers, a female journalist's awakening, and the ultimate showdown between poaching and protection ★ An immersive experience of Tibetan culture: sky burials, prayer flags, Tibetan medicinal wisdom, and pastoral legends woven into the main story