“When I was 8 years old, my parents paid a smuggler to take me across the Himalayas, a weekslong walk over the mountains from Tibet to India. It was a trek that tens of thousands of other Tibetans have taken since the Dalai Lama fled a failed 1959 uprising against Chinese rule. My parents must have had their reasons to send me here; they must have had the best of intentions. But 18 years later, I still don't know why they did it. They are not political people. They are small farmers who raise barley and a few yak in a rural area not far from Lhasa, the Tibetan capital. I have not seen them since I left...”. – Tsering Topgyal via The Associated Press. (Photo by Tsering Topgyal/AP Photo)

In this January 27, 2014 photo, snow rollers dot a lot at the northwest corner of Olive and North Main streets in Akron, Ohio. The snow balls are formed naturally when high winds push snow across a hill. (Photo by Michael Chritton/AP Photo/Akron Beacon Journal)

A couple passes the sculpture “Transformer” by Chinese artist Bi Heng during snowfall in Kassel, central Germany, Tuesday March 12, 2013. Frankfurt airport closed, a quarter of flights out of Paris were canceled, Belgium suffered record traffic jams and high-speed trains were stuck in stations – all because of a sudden dump of oddly late snowfall on Western Europe. Less prepared for the kind of heavy snow that regularly hits northern and eastern neighbors, France, Britain and Belgium struggled Tuesday to keep moving amid the frosty, blustery conditions. (Photo by Uwe Zucchi/AP Photo/Dpa)

Record snowfall in the Sahara Desert near the town of Ain Sefra in Algeria on January 21, 2017. (Photo by Geoff Robinson/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

The snow leopard (Panthera uncia syn. Uncia uncia) is a large cat native to the mountain ranges of Central and South Asia. It is listed as endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species because as of 2003, the size of the global population was estimated at 4,080-6,590 adults, of which fewer than 2,500 individuals may reproduce in the wild.

(L-R) Zoe Kravitz, Jason Momoa, and Lisa Bonet attend the world premiere of “Conan The Barbarian” held at Regal Cinemas L.A. Live on August 11, 2011 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Jason Merritt/Getty Images)

A reindeer is seen as people visit ice sculptures illuminated by coloured lights at the Harbin Ice and Snow Festival to celebrate the new year in Harbin on January 4, 2017. (Photo by Nicolas Asfouri/AFP Photo)

Visitors stand inside a church made entirely of snow and ice in southern Bavaria on January 14, 2012 in Mitterfirmiansreut, Germany. (Photo by Johannes Simon/Getty Images)