发现荒凉之美，是人类好奇心促就的激情再现；而记录荒凉之美，则是我们人类毅力和忍耐力的结晶。当我翻阅著名摄影师张超音先生的这本力作，我被其中精美的图片感动了。本以为早已随风飘逝的年少时的梦境再次浮现。我知道人人都在追梦，只不过后来有人放弃了，有人却依旧坚守。张超音先生就是这样的坚守者。在他近20年的高原摄影旅行中，苦难和艰险可以想象，而此间发现和记录的美景、奇景和胜景也许就是支撑他乐此不疲的主要原因了。

Human curiosity produces the impulse to discover the beauty of bleakness, while it demands the willpower and endurance to record such beauty. I was touched by the gorgeous pictures while going over this powerful work by Mr. Zhang Chaoyin, a famous photographer. The childhood dreams, which I assumed had gone with the wind, reappeared in my mind. I’m aware that everyone loves to pursue a dream, but only some would give it up later while others would stick with it. Zhang Chaoyin is one of the latter. In the nearly 20 years of his journey to photograph the highlands, one could well imagine what hardships and dangers he has gone through, yet the beautiful, wonderful and magical scenes he discovered and recorded might be the one thing that has sustained him.

这本书不单是一本倾心制作的画册，其文字说明更是在亲历纪实的基础上，参考大量的文化及科考文献，在遇到有关专业知识方面，请教长期从事研究的专家指导撰写而成，堪称摄影艺术与文化、科学研究的完美结合之作。所以当我们阅读本书，不仅会被其中奇美的风光、独特的民风所感动，而且会被贴切、精致、优美的文字所打动。这些图片与文字，可以引领我们走入那个遥远、宏阔、神秘的青藏高原，走近那些淳朴、虔诚、执著的藏民族。

The book is more than an album carefully produced. Its text has been written on the basis of personal experience and reference to lots of cultural and scientific literature. It is a perfect combination of photographic art and cultural and scientific studies. That’s why we are touched both by the images of unique landscapes and folk customs and by the accurate and beautiful descriptions while reading the book. The pictures and text can bring us into the remote, vast and mysterious Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and get us closer to the honest, pious and persevering Tibetan people.

本书作者张超音先生是位颇有成就的摄影家。近年来，他执著于人文摄影，为了纪录青藏高原的山川地貌、风土人情和宗教习俗，他不畏艰险，克服重重困难，甚至是冒着生命的危险，以超人的勇气和毅力，27次入藏，拍摄了难以计数的精美照片。经过仔细整理与详实考察、研究，大约在10年前，张超音先生开始着手将这些照片及研究成果编成一部多卷本的大型人文画册：《藏族》。眼下只待时机成熟，便可付梓出版。本书可以算作是这一庞大工程正式开工前的一次演练。

The author Zhang Chaoyin is an accomplished photographer. In recent years he has devoted himself to humanity photography. In order to record the landscape, folk style and religious customs on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, he has overcome many difficulties in defiance of hardships and dangers, even risking death, to make over 27 trips to Tibetan areas and take numerous exquisite pictures. After careful compilation and detailed studies, Mr. Zhang began about ten years ago to turn his photographs and research into a multi-volume book series entitled Tibet. Now he is waiting for the funding to get the book published. This album is just a prelude to this gigantic project.

张超音先生既是著名的摄影艺术家，也是我所供职的中国国家地理杂志的长期合作者，还是我的甘肃同乡，故遵嘱发己之感想以为序。

In addition to being an accomplished photographer, Zhang Chaoyin is also a long-term cooperator with the China National Geographic with which I’m working, and we are both from Gansu Province. At his request, I expressed my thoughts on reading his book in this preface.