You have almost certainly seen more than a few images of this mighty river.
It is not unlikely that you have stood beside it, crossed it, or cruised along part of it.
Almost certainly, however, you have never seen even a photo of its upland section.
Award yourself an elephant stamp if you recognised the Mekong!
The world’s 12th longest river system, the Mekong has an average outflow only marginally smaller than that of the Missouri-Mississippi.
At “only” 4,350 kilometres, the Mekong is a deal shorter than the Missouri-Mississippi’s 6, 275 kilometres.
Lengthwise, North America’s “big river” is #4 in the global rankings.
Vertically speaking, the Mekong stands very much taller; its source, on the Tibetan Plateau, is 5,224 metres above sea level.
The Missouri’s is at 2,800 metres, whilst the Mississippi’s primary source is at just 450 metres.
(The Mississippi is “flatter” even than Australia’s not so very mighty Murray. The Murray’s Australian Alps source is 1,430 metres above sea level)
The time and place for this post’s image was 5.30 pm on 14 October 2019, in Yushu Prefecture (officially, “Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture”. It is indeed – by any reasonable historical or cultural criterion – part of Tibet. However, Yushu, under Chinese rule, is definitely not – by any reasonable definition – an autonomous place) in China’s Qinghai Province.
At this point – a short drive away from Yushu City (aka Gyêgu or Jyekundo) the Mekong’s waters have recently descended from the nearby Tibetan Plateau, but are still more than 3,500 metres above the sea.
Where those waters meet the sea is circa 3000 kilometres distant.
This post’s musical component is one of the great river songs, albeit one which – like the Mekong’s upper reaches – is unknown to most humans.
Its author – Tom Russell – has been described as “the John Steinbeck of country song”.
Big Water was his highly allusive response to the great flood of 1993, when the Missouri, Mississippi and their tributaries wreaked US$15 billion worth of damage.
As with the current global pandemic, that American event was not simply a “natural” disaster, as spelled out here.
Tom Russell’s duo vocalist here is his peer as a songsmith…and his superior as a singer: Iris Dement.