YUSHU, China — With a set of chopsticks in her hands and a Tibetan prayer spilling from her lips, Gelazomo, a 32-year-old yak herder, hunched over the rocky banks of the river that cuts through this city and hunted for the quarry that she hoped would bring salvation.
中国玉树——32岁的牧民格拉佐玛(Gelazomo)在一条横贯玉树的河流的石岸边弯着腰，手里握着一双筷子，一边吟诵藏语祷文，一边寻找着她期望能带来救赎的小生命。
Every few minutes, she would tease out a tiny river shrimp that had become stranded in the mud, and then dropping it into a bucket of water. Beside her, dozens of other Tibetans toiled in the noonday sun, among them small children and old people who, from afar, appeared to be panning for gold.
每隔几分钟，她就会从淤泥里挑出一只微小的河虾，然后将它放入水桶中。在她身旁，还有数十名藏人在炎炎烈日下辛苦劳作，其中还有小孩和老人，远远望去，他们仿佛是在淘金。

“Buddha has taught us that treating others with love and compassion is the right thing to do, no matter how tiny that life is,” she explained, as the newly revived crustaceans darted through the water of her bucket.
看着这些获救的甲壳类动物在水桶里游来游去，她解释称，“佛陀教导我们，应该用仁爱与慈悲之心对待其他生命，无论它们多么渺小。”
Buddhists are encouraged to demonstrate a reverence for all sentient beings; some believers spurn meat while others buy animals destined for slaughter and then set them free. Here in Yushu, a largely Tibetan city where more than 3,000 people died in an earthquake four years ago, the faithful have been flocking to the Batang River to rescue a minuscule aquatic crustacean that would hardly seem deserving of such attention.
佛教鼓励信徒敬畏众生；一些信徒拒绝吃肉，其他人则买下将要被屠宰的动物，然后放生。在玉树，信徒们纷纷来到巴塘河，拯救那些微小的水生甲壳生物。虽然表面上看起来，它们并不值得关注。四年前，这个以藏人为主的城市发生地震，3000多人在地震中遇难。
Buddhist monks say the growing interest in “life liberation” or “mercy release,” as it is sometimes called, is part of a surge in religious devotion that followed the quake, which flattened much of Yushu. Donations to local monasteries have soared, they said, as have ordinary acts of kindness among strangers in this city of 120,000 roughly 1,300 miles northwest of Hong Kong.
佛教僧人表示，在地震将玉树大部分地区夷为平地之后，人们越来越信仰宗教，对“放生”的兴趣日益浓厚。他们表示，当地寺院收到的捐赠出现猛增，在这个12万人口的城市中，陌生人之间普通的善举也越来越多，玉树位于香港西北部大约1300英里（约合2093公里）处。
“To save these lives is not only for me and my family but for all the people who died in the earthquake,” said Gelazomo, who like many Tibetans goes by a single name.
格拉佐玛说，“我拯救这些生命，不仅仅是为了我自己和家人，也是为了所有地震遇难者。”像很多藏人一样，格拉佐玛也只使用单名。
Working with her infant son strapped to her back, she said the loss and trauma experienced by so many people in Yushu had fortified their commitment to Buddhist teachings that emphasize respect for all living creatures.
格拉佐玛将幼小的儿子绑在背上劳作，她表示，很多玉树人遭遇了损失与创伤，这加深了他们对佛法的信仰，而佛法强调尊重众生。
Several others said these specks of life could very well be the reincarnated souls of relatives or friends who perished in the earthquake.
其他人表示，这些微小的生命可能是在地震中遇难的亲属或朋友的转世。
Chenrup, 67, a nomad, said the prospect of being reborn as a fly or a dog could not be dismissed. “We have the same feelings as the fish,” said Chenrup, a vegetarian who spends eight hours a day digging in the mud. “It is our duty to liberate them from pain and suffering.”
67岁的游牧人切恩鲁普(Chenrup)表示，转世为苍蝇或狗的可能性不能被排除。“我们与鱼有同样的感受，”素食主义者切恩鲁普说。“使它们摆脱痛苦是我们的责任。”切恩鲁普每天要在淤泥里挖八个小时。
From early morning until dusk, the soul-savers work to extract creatures that have become stranded as the river, which is fed by snow-draped mountains, recedes in summer. The shrimp, about the size of a fingernail clipping, are almost impossible to see in the sunbaked muck and only make themselves known by writhing faintly. After collecting them in buckets or paper cups, the diggers set them free into the river.
从清晨到黄昏，灵魂拯救者们努力挖取那些因为夏季河水退去而搁浅的生物，这条河流的水源来自冰雪覆盖的高山。这些虾只有铰下的手指甲大小，几乎是不可能在久经日晒的淤泥里发现它们，只能通过其轻扭动作找到它们。在将它们挖出放入水桶或纸杯后，挖掘者们将它们放回河流中。
From the thousands of multicolor prayer flags that flutter across barren mountainsides to the monasteries that fleck even the most remote valleys, religious devotion suffuses every aspect of life on the Tibetan Plateau. Although many people here consume meat — and tending livestock sustains most rural families — it is not uncommon to see yaks or goats adorned with colorful strands of yarn, an indication that their lives have been spared.
在青藏高原上，从贫瘠的山坡到遥远山谷处的寺院，成千上万的多彩经幡迎风招展，宗教信仰渗入生活的方方面面。虽然很多人吃肉，而且大多数农村家庭饲养家畜，但大家可以经常看到系有彩带的牦牛和山羊，这种彩带表明，它们是被放生的。
Across the plateau, the practice of life liberation supports a growing mini-industry. Since 2008, the Kilung Monastery in Sichuan Province has saved hundreds of yaks, sheep and goats through a program financed largely by believers overseas. For $1,000 a yak and $100 a goat, participants can buy an animal headed to the slaughterhouse. A nomadic family will also set aside an animal in their herd and dedicate it to providing wool ($165) or milk ($35). The monastery accepts online payments, including Visa and MasterCard.
在整个青藏高原，放生活动支撑着一个不断发展的小型产业。自2008年以来，四川省的吉龙寺(Kilung Monastery)已经通过一个主要由海外信徒资助的项目，拯救了数以百计的牦牛、绵羊和山羊。参与者可以买下将被送往屠宰场的动物，一头牦牛1000美元（约合6200元），一只山羊100美元。游牧家庭也会留出一头动物，用于提供羊毛（165美元）或奶（35美元）。该寺院接受网上支付，可以使用Visa和万事达(MasterCard)。
Local monks acknowledge that the practice has a negligible impact on the number of animals destined for slaughter, but they say it serves to remind people about the sanctity of life and can also produce concrete benefits for adherents.
当地僧人承认，这种做法对送去屠宰的动物数量的影响很有限，但他们称，这样做可以提醒人们注意生命的神圣性，而且还能给信徒带来具体的好处。
In an essay to his followers, Chatral Rinpoche, a 101-year-old Tibetan religious figure who is said to have saved more than a million animals in his lifetime, said mercy release could lead to better harvests and healthier, longer lives for practitioners. “No greater crime is there than taking life away, and no conditioned virtue brings greater merit than the act of saving beings and ransoming their lives,” he wrote in a widely circulated essay. “Therefore, should you wish for happiness and good, exert yourself in this, the most supreme of paths.”
据称，现年101岁的西藏宗教人物恰扎仁波切(Chatral Rinpoche)一生拯救了100多万只动物。他在写给信众的一篇文章中说，放生可以带来更好的收成，放生者也会更加健康和长寿。“最大的罪业莫过于杀生，任何有条件的善举，功德都不及拯救和救赎生命，”他在一篇广泛传播的文章中写道。“所以，如果你祈求幸福和如意，就去放生吧，这是至高之路。”
As increasing numbers of Chinese rediscover Buddhism after decades of state-enforced atheism, animal release has become a popular way to express religious devotion, especially among the ranks of middle-class urbanites who buy turtles or fish from produce markets and set them free in parks or temple ponds.
数十年来，中国政府一直在强制推行无神论。然而目前，越来越多中国人开始重新审视佛教。在这种情况下，放生成了一种颇受欢迎的表达虔诚的方式，对于城市里的中产阶级尤其如此。他们往往会从市场购买乌龟或鱼类，然后在公园或寺庙的池塘里放生。
The practice, though, has its detractors, who say releasing tropical creatures in northern climes begets a different kind of cruel death — by winter’s freezing temperatures. Across Asia, especially in cities with large Chinese communities, caged birds are sold outside temples; once released, the birds are sometimes trapped again and resold, but more often they are unable to fend for themselves and die.
然而，也有人对这种做法持批评态度。这些批评者称，把热带动物放生到北方的气候之中，只会造成另一种残酷的死亡——在寒冷的冬季被冻死。在整个亚洲，尤其是有大量中国人聚居的城市，寺庙外都有人出售关在笼子里的鸟；放生后，这些鸟有时还会再次被逮住，再被出售。但更常见的下场是，它们会因为无法保护自己而死去。
The practice, environmentalists say, also leads to the introduction of invasive species, with potentially ruinous results. In the United States, the northern snakehead fish, a voracious Chinese predator thought to have been freed during mercy release ceremonies, has been found in waters from the Potomac River to Lake Michigan, alarming bass fishermen and aquatic biologists who worry about the northern snakehead’s potential to consume and crowd out native species.
环保人士称，这种做法还导致一些侵入性物种的引入，而这可能会导致毁灭性的后果。在美国，有人认为人们在放生活动中，曾释放过凶猛的中国肉食性鱼类黑鱼，因为人们在从波托马克河到密歇根湖的水域中发现了这种鱼。这让捕捞鲈鱼的渔夫和水生生物学家们感到紧张，因为他们担心，这种黑鱼可能会吃掉本地的物种，或者把本地的物种挤出去。
In Yushu, which is also known by its Tibetan name Jiegu, mountains and rivers are embraced as holy places and ordinary Tibetans display a sophisticated appreciation of the ecologically fragile landscape that sustains them.
玉树在藏语中又称结古，山峦与河流在这里都具有神圣的色彩，普通藏人对养育他们的这片生态脆弱的土地，怀有一种深刻的感激之情。
In recent years, protesters have tried to block illegal mining operations, leading to violent clashes inside the Three-River Source Nature Reserve, a protected area outside Yushu that contains the headwaters of the Yangtze, Yellow and Mekong rivers.
近年来，抗议者曾试图阻止非法的采矿活动，所以三江源自然保护区爆发了多次暴力冲突。三江源是玉树之外的一个保护区，长江、黄河、湄公河发源于此。
Last August, dozens of people were reportedly injured after the police used batons, tear gas and electric prods to break up a large, three-day demonstration outside an open-pit diamond mine, according to Tibetan exile groups.
藏人流亡团体表示，去年8月，警方使用警棍、催泪瓦斯和电棍，驱散了一个露天钻石矿外持续三天的大型抗议，据称有数十人在镇压中受伤。
Chuyan Dorjee, 26, a monk who joined the throngs digging alongside the Batang River one recent morning, explained why many Tibetans felt so strongly about safeguarding the environment. “If human beings are to live in this world, we have to protect the animals and the grass,” he said. “We are all connected to one another. If they have no place to live, we will have no place to live.”
最近一天上午，26岁的僧人丘扬多吉(Chuyan Dorjee)也加入了在巴塘河沿线挖掘的队伍。他解释了为何许多藏人都有保护环境的强烈意识。“如果人类要在世界上生存，就必须保护动物和青草，”他说。“我们都与彼此息息相关。如果它们失去了生存地，我们也将失去生存地。”
The sight of so many people toiling in the sun, many of them well into their 70s and 80s, was contagious. Among the diggers was Ha Kaimu, 20, a sock and underwear salesman who took the day off from his stall at the local market.
许多人都在烈日下辛劳，其中很多都已经七八十岁了，这种情景很有感染力。20岁的哈凯穆（Ha Kaimu，音译）也在挖掘者之列。他在当地的市场有个出售袜子和内衣的货摊，这天他给自己放了一天假。
Mr. Kaimu, an ethnic Hui Muslim who recently moved to Yushu from neighboring Gansu Province, said he was deeply moved by the collective act of benevolence.
哈凯穆是一名回族穆斯林，最近才从临近的甘肃省搬到玉树。他说，这种集体性的善举让他深受感动。
“In my hometown, if there was a much larger animal facing such a predicament, no one would lift a finger, but look at all these people working to save a tiny creature,” he said as several women offered him a hearty thumbs-up. “How could anyone not be moved?”
“在我的家乡，即使有个子更大的动物陷入困境，都不会有人尽举手之劳。但是看看这里的人，他们正在拯救那些微小的动物，”他说话的时候，几名妇女真诚地对他竖起了大拇指。“怎么会有人不感动？”