by Jim Goodman
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| yaks grazing in Diqing Prefecture, Yunnan |
The road running from Lijiang,
which sits on an elevated plain at 2400 meters, to Shangrila, high up on the
Tibetan Plateau at nearly 3300 meters, offers some of the greatest scenic
variety in Yunnan province. After
leaving Lijiang the road cuts through hills speckled with Naxi villages to the
Jinshajiang, then turns upriver as far as its confluence at Qiaotou with the
Chongjiang, a cleaner, swifter river than the usually muddy, sluggish
Jinshajiang.
From Qiaotou Shangrila County
begins and about 20 kilometers north the road passes into Yi territory,
characterized by log cabin hamlets and potato and maize farms high up on the
slopes, gurgling streams below and pine forests all around. After another 15 kilometers the road
begins winding its way uphill until it reaches a chorten with strings of prayer flags attached, marking the entry
into a broad, high, rolling plain.
This is the southeastern corner of the Tibetan Plateau, studded with
villages of whitewashed houses and flat tile roofs, with huge wooden drying
racks in the fields and thickly forested mountains behind them. And in the pastures between the
settlements and along the rural streams roam the yaks.
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| yak on a village path, Shangrila County |
Bigger than the largest breed
of cattle, with a hump over the shoulders and cloven hooves, these domesticated
yaks are yet smaller than their wild yak progenitors. Long gone from Yunnan, and now found mainly in northern
Tibet, southern Xinjiang and Ladakh, India, the wild yak males are 1.5-2.2
meters tall at the shoulders and 2.5-3.3 meters long, with a tail of 60-100 centimeters. They can weigh from 300-1000
kilograms. Females are smaller, about
one-third the size and weight.
No doubt in prehistoric times
people living at high altitudes hunted wild yaks for their meat. Eventually they realized the animal
could be of greater use to then if they domesticated it, which ethnic Qiang herdsmen
achieved about 4500 years ago.
This proved to be quite successful. Nowadays estimates of the wild yak population range around
15,000, while domesticated yaks number in the millions. They are classified as a separate
species—bos grunnians, the ‘grunting
ox’, after the sound it makes, rather than the ‘moo’ of cattle.
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| spring plowing |
Domestic yaks are somewhat
smaller than their wild cousins, but are still pretty bulky, males weighing up
to nearly 600 kg, females usually about 250 kg. The male’s horns extend 49-100 cm, slightly curved upward at
the tips. The female’s horns are
straight and 27-64 cm long. Yaks
primarily use their horns to dig through snow and ice to get at the edible plants
underneath.
The layer of atmosphere at
this altitude is about two-thirds the density of that at sea level and even
significantly thinner than that at Lijiang. Visitors coming up from lower altitudes notice this right
away in their breathing, suddenly a little laborious, especially if walking
around or uphill too much. The
usual advice is to take it easy the first couple days until the body is used to
it. Presumably, the same thing
happens to lowland animals brought up here, though that’s rare anyway.
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| milking a yak |
Yaks, and their human keepers
the Tibetans, are already physically adapted, for they have bigger hearts and
lungs. Yaks are also better fitted
against the cold than people, who must don layers of clothing to insulate
themselves. Yaks have a thick layer
of subcutaneous fat and their chests, flanks and thighs are covered with long,
shaggy hair over a thick woolen undercoat. Able to withstand sub-freezing temperatures in the winter,
they can suffer from heat exhaustion when temperatures climb above 15 degrees
Centigrade. Likewise, they can
become sluggish, with breathing difficulties, if taken to the denser
atmospheric layer below 2600 meters altitude.
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| selling yak cheese in the Shangrila city market |
Mating season is
July-September, with a single calf per mother born in April-June. The newborn yak calf can stand and walk
ten minutes after birth. After
about five years they are fully grown and usually live about twenty years. They do not eat grain, but feed on
grasses, herbs, leafy plants and occasionally lichens and mosses. Because they ferment the food slowly,
they only consume 1% of their body weight daily. Cattle, by comparison, with a faster digestive system,
require 3%.
People also cross breed yaks
with cattle, producing a slightly smaller animal called the dzo. The male dzo is infertile,
so the female may later be mated with a full-blooded yak. The Shangrila plain has many of these,
but still has a vast number of pure yaks.
All types are used the same way as draft animals and sources of food.
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| yaks on the road north of Diqing |
Tibetans use their male yaks
for heavy tasks like pulling plows and hauling logs. Being bigger and stronger than the females, they are the
pack animals carrying loads on the caravans. The females are more valued for their milk, with its high
butter fat content, from which Tibetans produce butter and cheese, essential
parts of their diet.
Usually men milk the yaks and
women turn the milk into butter and cheese. To make butter they pour milk into a meter-tall wooden tube
and churn it with a pole until it reaches a certain temperature. Then they add a little cold water (warm
in winter) and the butter floats to the top and congeals. Scooping it out, they next press it
into round cakes in cold water. To
make cheese they heat the milk over a low fire, which separates it into curds
and water. After cooling, the
resultant curds are strained into a cloth and dried into lumps of cheese. Each area produces a different taste. That of Shangrila is slightly tart,
while that of Diqing tastes best when boiled and served in melted butter. That of Benzilan, where they add sugar
to the milk, is rather sweet.
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| yaks in winter on the Shangrila plain |
Most rural families own one or
two yaks, or at least a female dzo. Yaks are tame by nature, easy to train
and don’t require breaking in like horses. When not put to work they roam freely to feed and can be
easily led back to the owner’s compound.
They are kept in a separate shed or occupy a ground floor room of the
house, as the family living and sleeping quarters are on the upper floor.
The life of a yak follows a
seasonal pattern. During the
winter they stay on the Shangrila plain.
The only work required of them might be to haul timber to the site of a
new house. In the spring farmers
yoke a pair of yaks together to pull a plow across the barley fields. A woman guides the animals in the
front, while a man operates the plow behind them.
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| Yaks in Baimashan |
Spring is also the time the
yaks shed their downy undercoat, which people comb out to collect, then process
into a fiber similar to cashmere.
The long outer hair makes belts, ropes and bags. The undercoat and outer hair grow back
during the summer.
Besides the farmers’ family
yaks, herders manage numbers of them in the open spaces between the villages,
especially in the glens around Bita and Shudu Lakes, east of Shangrila city,
Napa Lake to the north and the valley beyond Songzhanlin. These yaks won’t be put to work as
draft or transport animals, but instead are raised for their meat and hides. In the summer the herders take them up
into the mountains, to elevations over 4000 meters. Baimashan, between Benzilan and Diqing, is a favorite
destination.
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| yak herders' summer camp in Baimashan |
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| dueling male yaks |
Herds can be as large as 200
animals, but they are usually much smaller, of 10-20 females and their
calves. Males stay solitary or in
groups of four to six. They can be
cantankerous towards each other, sometimes fighting by ramming their heads and
pushing the opponent until he gives way.
At night the females huddle together, with their calves in the center,
to protect against the cold.
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| yaks in Yao Shan, Ninglang County |
Besides Shangrila and Diqing
Counties, yaks also live high up on Yao Shan—Medicine Mountain—in northern Ninglang
County. The herders here are Yi
and the yaks are raised for their meat, hides and milk products and not put to
work. Yak meat is very nutritious,
full of protein and with low fat content—3.9%, compared to 9% for chicken and
24% for beef. The hairy hides make
warm blankets and the tails are sold as flywhisks. In areas short of firewood, dried yak dung serves for
fuel. People also use the skulls
as house decorations, sometimes inscribing them or the horns with prayers.
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| skinning a yak in Shangrila city |
Beyond their ubiquitous
physical presence on the Shangrila plain, the importance of yaks in the lives
of the local people is plainly evident on a trip to the city markets. Tibetan women sit behind tables laden
with lumps of yak cheese and discs of yak butter. Nearby stalls sell
yak tail flywhisks, belts and bags made from yak leather, slings and pouches of
yak hair, tubular wooden churns for making yak butter, combs and pipes carved
from yak horn and rows of dried skulls.
Vendors sell fresh meat as well as strips of dried yak meat jerky.
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| yak jerky on sale in Shangrila city |
When receiving guests into
their homes Tibetans traditionally set them by the fire or other warm place and
prepare refreshments. The hostess
will churn some butter, add hot tea and serve the standard Tibetan
drink—buttered tea, believed to warm the body better than tea without
butter. A bowl of barley flour and
a plate of cheese slices come with the tea.
Yak products are also found in
the temples. Monks use yak tail
flywhisks to shoo away insects indoors.
Rows of small yak butter lamps line the altars in front of the images,
some of which are yak butter figurines painted with bright colors. Butter images melt when the
temperatures warm up. Like the
sand mandalas swept away after their ritual use, they are thus symbols of impermanence
and new ones made for the cooler months.
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| yak tails, Shangrila city market |
When welcoming visiting
dignitaries, high officials or renowned lamas, or at the start of an important
festival, Tibetan communities will stage a yak dance. Two performers dance under a single yak skin, one at each
end. They cavort while surrounded
by spectators and occasionally dash into the amused crowd and scatter them out
of their way.
Yaks are also part of Tibetan
mythology as embodiments of gods and demons. The wild yak was an obvious inspiration in ancient
times. It was unpredictable and
prone to violence much more severe than the head-butting contests of domestic
yaks. It was a dangerous prey,
too, and so difficult to hunt that those hunters who did succeed were feted as
village heroes.
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| making butter tea for the guests |
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| yak skulls, Shangrila city market |
In the usual Good vs. Evil
contests, the Lords of Heaven may assume the form of a white yak, in one story
a huge white yak that emits blizzards from its mouth and nose. Black yaks, with fiery eyes, are the
incarnation of the demons of Hell.
In the Tibetan epic of Gesar of Ling, the goatherd Palé happens to
witness a duel between a white yak and a black yak. When he sees the latter is about to win, suspecting it as a
demon in disguise, he kills the black yak.
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| yak passing by the barley drying rack in autumn |
The surviving white yak
reveals itself to be Gyamzhin, the Lord of the Gods, and offers half his palace
or half his kingdom or whatever his rescuer demands as reward. Palé requests that one of Gyanzhin’s
sons be sent down to rule over Ling.
Eventually Heaven sends Gesar to be born in Ling. Among the adventures Gesar has in his
career are periodic duels with yak demons.
During the winter festivals at
Songzhanlin and Dongzhulin, as well as the Horse Racing Festival the fifth
lunar month in Shangrila city, masked lama dances are part of the program. The skits depict some kind of gods vs.
demons battle and both sides wear horrific masks. And on Hell’s side will be at least one performer in the
mask of a black yak demon.
When the dances conclude and
there’s a pause before the next event, the audience breaks up into small groups
for refreshments. Most likely this
will be buttered tea from a thermos and pieces of jerky and cheese. They might even consume it while
sitting on a yak leather mat. Yaks
are in one way or another connected to practically everything Tibetans do. It’s hard to imagine what they would do
without them.
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| herder milking a yak in his sumer Baimashan camp |
° ° °
We’ll see plenty of yaks on Delta
Tours Vietnam’s route through northwest Yunnan. See the schedule at https://www.deltatoursvietnam.com/northwest-yunnan
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