For centuries the Tibetan nomads have had a great consideration for the Yak. Legend holds that it was Guru Rimpoche himself who domesticated the first yak. From it the Tibetans get the milk to makes the highly appreciated cheese known as “Chhurpi”, as well as the butter used for the ubiquitous tea, and to fuel the lamps of the monasteries.

The hair of the yak is felted to become chara felt, after which it is used to bind the tents during winter or to make bags and blankets.

The fibre is spun to make cords, while since time immemorial the tails have been used in both Buddhist and Hindu religious rituals. The skin of the yak is used to make soles for boots, while the heart and meat of the animal are a significant element of Tibetan cooking. In the nomadic tradition, no part of the animal is wasted, and even the dung is widely used as fuel.

Before it can be burned, it is hung to dry in flat patties that can still be seen on the walls of most of the houses in Tibet.

It is calculated that up to fifty years ago the number of wild yaks (Bos motus) which wandered around on the Tibetan plateau amounted to a million individuals. Now it is an animal threatened with extinction, and it is a rare stroke of good luck to spot even one of these magnificent black bovines with their long, sharp horns, which can reach up to a ton in weight and whose height at the withers can be over one metre eighty centimetres.

Because of the greater demand for their meat and the increase in poaching, in Tibet the number of yaks has fallen to about 15,000.

Eating yak meat is not considered sacrilege in Tibetan culture, but hunting wild yaks is illegal.

The wild yak or “Drong” lives in desolate places in the remote and barren reaches of the Tibetan plateau, and so it is rare to meet one. It is more likely for men to encounter domesticated yaks, or in most cases what are not really yaks at all but “Dzo” or “Dzopkyo”, a cross between a yak and a “Bos taurus”, the common domesticated bull.

The domesticated yak is rarely taller than one and a half metres and, unlike its wild relative whose coat ranges from black to grey, the domestic yak’s coat may even be white, especially in the vicinity of Kokonor in Qinghai or even golden brown, as in the case of the exemplars present in the area of Mount Aru.

The yak is generally called nor, a word which means wealth, and a man’s property is evaluated on the basis of the dimensions of his herd. The animal is of such importance for the Tibetan nomads that they give each of them a name, as they do with their children.

Precisely because of the crucial role that the yak plays in the incessant commercial activity of the nomads, the shepherds take great care of the health and safety of their animals.

The movements of the nomad clan are dictated by the requirements of the animals and determined by the abundance of the pastures; effectively they move from between three and eight times a year to guarantee the yaks sufficient forage. These beasts represent the true wealth of the nomad family, since the products derived from the farming guarantee them sustenance in the desolate areas where they live.

With its extraordinary constitution and strength, the yak has made a fundamental contribution to making possible the hard life of the Tibetan nomads, known as drokpa (or dropa), and the men and animals exist alongside each other in admirable harmony.