Healthy yak – about yaks


The Yak:

Not Only Another Hairy Animal

The next description of yaks was obtained from another website:

This shaggy animal, a kind of high-altitude cow, may be the animal most frequently connected using the Himalaya. In mountain mythology yaks frequently offered as messengers from the gods, however for Himalayan villagers, they’re a vital area of the daily existence.

Within the high Himalayan valleys, almost everyone has several way of livelihood: farming, buying and selling, and herding sheep and yaks. Initially the yak would be a wild animal which roamed the Tibetan plateau.

Particularly suited to thin air living above 3000 meters, the yak is among the mainstays of Himalayan existence. Within the centuries they’ve been domesticated and sometimes mix-bred through the local population, however they remain shy creatures, cautious about other people and vulnerable to erratic behavior.


Male yaks supply the major way of transporting goods within the high-altitude Himalaya and also the Tibetan plateau. They are able to carry as much as a hundred kilograms of cargo over precarious trails and snow-filled passes.

Within the mountain tops between Nepal and Tibet, lengthy yak caravans really are a common sight. Charge yaks are very well trained creatures who respond readily for their owner’s instructions and be aware of trails without faltering step-they are able to plow through four of unbroken snow. The respect provided to charge yak is proven because it doesn’t have a load like all of those other caravan and it is adorned with bells and vibrant red tassels. During these caravans, which could have as much as fifty yaks or more, the primary cargo introduced from Tibet is rock salt, dried sheep meat, made of woll, saddle carpets, labored silver, and Chinese product which for example footwear, thermoses flashlights, and tea cups. Frequently these traders sell their wares within the high valleys, but when they choose to trade at lower elevations, the masses are transferred in the yaks to mules and horses. Grain, tea, sugar, oil, and cloth are transported around the return trip.

Tibet yakThe females, known as dri or nak, are more lucrative compared to males for they provide wealthy milk, necessary to the diets from the mountain people. This milk is especially tasty due to the diet of high mountain herbs the locals repeat the greater the dri grazes, the sweeter the milk. In mountain areas, in which the number of meals are limited, these products produced from dri milk assume great importance. The folks of the region drink more tea than elsewhere within the world, thirty to fifty cups each day. This teas are not exactly what the foreigner would expect. It is made from milk, butter, and salt, blended inside a tall wooden chum. It resembles a soup greater than tea, also it fortifies the folks from the cold. The milk of dris can also be converted to cheese and yogurt. The cheese is dried under the sun or higher a wide open fire to preserve it for that winter several weeks when milk products are scarce. This really is known as churpi, a popular snack of mountain people.

Both yaks and dris provide a top quality made of woll, wealthy in lanolin and lengthy of fiber. This results in a whole

weaving industry of camping tents, blankets, ropes, and clothing. The meat from the creatures is eaten fresh or even more frequently, dried into jerky.

Yak herders are semi-nomadic people. They live in their own individual villages only during the cold winter several weeks. Following a seasons and also the grass, they move as frequently as six occasions annually. Using the the sunshine they progress the mountainsides, reaching the greatest pastures within the summer time. Some increase up to 6000 meters.

The trekkers will hike by and possibly even camp within the high summer time settlements from the yak herders. The making of these settlements differs from spot to place. Many are solid stone structures, as present in Langtang, filled with hearths, shelves, and locking doorways. Others, as with the Solu district, are simple bamboo dwellings that are moved using the herd from pasture and pasture.

Old yak

The herders and creatures remain in the summer time pasture from May to September. Within this period the females give birth, thus growing their ability to make the milk. Half the daily milk remains for that youthful, as the herders go ahead and take rest for his or her own needs.

Using the creation of fall, the herds are gradually moved back lower. Spring is a time period of festivals for that departure from the herders using their homes towards the pasture above. Summer time is most likely the favourite season since the weather conditions are warm and also the grass and milk plentiful. Fall brings much work, for that winter fodder must be slashed, dried and stored.

The quantity of yaks inside a man’s herd represents his wealth.

A yak is really a substantial investment for that Himalayan occupant as well as an important bit of property. Yaks may live three decades, how old they are is seen through the period of their horns. They mate and convey milk between three and twenty-five.

Youthful virile yaks frequently test their prowess in competitive battles within the females. These fights are fierce clashes sometimes resulting within the loser falling more than a high cliff or right into a gorge. Yaks which have been mix-bred with cows are known as dzo (male) and dzomo (female). They are able to live at lower altitudes and therefore are simpler to deal with when transporting loads. The dzomo maintains the fine milking sign of the dris. The visible difference backward and forward kinds of creatures is extremely slight: dzos and dzomos are smaller sized and don’t possess the lengthy shaggy hair falling using their flanks and sides as yaks do.

Listen for that tinkling of yak bells while you trek with the mountain tops, across the steep trails and thru high pastures. You’re hearing age-old seem from the messengers from the gods, the seem of a means of existence unique towards the Himalaya.


Healthy yak in Lachung Yumthang Valley, Sikkim