[00:01.30]The golden dome,which is mounted right at the top of the prayer pole,
[00:05.20]is the most sacred object of all.
[00:09.88]Or it will be,once it's retrieved.
[00:24.93]The old Shamanic beliefs of Tibet ascribed magical powers to the landscape.
[00:32.70]But there's a far more tangible source of power here
[00:36.11]which owes nothing at all to magic.
[00:42.68]Strewn across the plateau are boiling thermal springs,
[00:47.45]the evidence of mighty natural forces which have been at work over millions of years.
[00:54.85]Deep below the surface,the vast continental plates of Asia and India are crashing into each other.
[01:02.31]The turmoil below erupts in clouds of sulphurous steam.
[01:10.94]It seems unlikely that scalding mineral springs should support life.
[01:16.20]But one unlikely creature thrives here precisely because of them.