Tibetan worm changes fortunes

Lhamotso’s daughter, 10-year-old Hiriti, shows off the single piece of caterpillar fungus she found in a day’s work. She hopes to sell it for $3. With their windfall earnings from last year, Lhamotso has bought herself a motorcycle and she and her husband gave up their tent for a house they built themselves with solar panels, a satellite dish and television. The money also means Hiriti, unlike her parents and elder sister, can get an education.  (Barbara Demick / Los Angeles Times)

A 15-year-old Tibetan girl cleans her family’s pickings of caterpillar fungus with a toothbrush. A worm that sells for $3 can fetch $10 in Singapore or Tokyo. Some worry that over-harvesting is ruining the Tibetan plateau’s delicate ecological balance and contributing to soil erosion and desertification.  (Jia Han / Los Angeles Times)

Tibetan nomad Lhamotso can earn $1,000 a week during the brief season gathering caterpillar fungus. “It’s only in the last two years it has gotten so expensive,” she says, “It’s crazy, but it is good for us. How else would I make so much money? I can’t read or write.”  (Jia Han / Los Angeles Times)