Photo Essay: Scientists and Villagers Struggle to Preserve a Holy Glacier

Dagu Glacier has long been considered sacred to the people who live around it. For generations, they have prayed to the glacier on the first and 15th day of the first month of the lunar year.

But as climate change is rapidly shrinking the sheet of solid ice, locals and a team of scientists have to take creative measures to preserve what they can, including laying blankets on the ice to keep it cold during the summer.

Locals and a team of scientists have taken creative measures to preserve what they can of the melting glacier. Photo: Ding Gang/Caixin