In the Himalayas alongside the last nomadic yak-breeding peoples | The domestication of epic horns

[Music] [Music] robust and Powerful endowed with a long and thick fleece a very developed heart and lungs the yak is built to survive the high altitudes of the Tibetan [Music] plateau in this immense region north of the Himalayas human populations began to Dem domesticated more than 7,000 years [Music] ago they made it a major Ally for surviving in these cold and hostile environments settling there despite the difficult living [Music] conditions 18 million years ago a small discreet and solitary mammal lived in the forests of Eurasia from Europe to present day Pakistan it liked to graze in the humid clearings and the marshes at the edge of the woods the animal looked like the smaller antelopes of today this small horned beast is called eot trus it is the common ancestor of a now famous family the bovid the populations of this mysterious creature evolved over time to adapt to different natural environments around the world 5 to 10 million years ago they they gave birth to about 20 species including the mighty orox man chooses some of them to domesticate them and then links his Destiny to this incredible animal family this is how zebu Yak water buffalo and Ox came into [Music] being the Chong Tong plateau in the ladak region in the far north of India is a small section of the immense Tibetan [Music] Plateau this is where the Changas live one of the rare nomadic Yak H herting peoples who still move from Village to Village according to the seasons carac at500 100 ft above sea level is one of the six stopover points of their unchanging Journey 17 families live here in the spring for a few months with their 300 Yaks which are everything to them these last nomadic champas raise their Yaks in conditions very similar to those of their ancestors the animals sleep in stone enclosures which are an integral part of the Changas habitat [Music] Som and her family live here in a small traditional house it would be very difficult for us to survive without the yak they provide us with everything we need and raising Yaks does not cost us anything for raising sheeps and goats we need Shepherds every day for grazing but we don't need Shepherds for the female yaks she goes to the pasture early in the morning and returns home in the evening by herself it's hard to imagine life without the Yak without the yak we wouldn't have milk butter cheese or manure for heating and [Music] cooking female Yaks the Dre are very docile they are smart and friendly they are very easy to handle especially for [Music] milking when the Yaks have gone to graze in the morning we collect the dong in the yak shed we also collect Dong from nearby mountains and pastures the yakang is kept on the roof to be dried we use this dry dong for cooking food especially local bread called cir part of this dry dong is stored for the winter every evening the female Yaks return to the village on their own after having wandered in the surrounding pastures our ancestors and their cattle settled in this Village hundreds of years ago after seeing the abundance of water and grazing lands in these valleys we continue to change locations depending on the quality of the pastures and the quantity of water otherwise it would be very difficult for us to survive these pastures are the lifeline of all nomads [Music] in Spring anticipating the first warm days before they lose their thick Woolen fleece the male Yaks are driven back to the village and welcomed by the community these large powerful and resistant males with a fiery character live away from the herd throughout the year alone at the foot of the glaciers at nearly 1900 ft above sea level they face extreme cold and Predators Tibetan wolves and snow leopards the remains of those who did not survive are brought back from the high altitudes by the men the pairs of horns like important relics are placed on sacred altars called Manny as offerings to the Mountain Spirits and in homage to the yaks the guardian figure of the yak is placed at the center of the village holding an important place in the people's lives and [Music] beliefs small figurine made of powdered yak bone are burned at The Village's Buddhist temple while the tails are placed at top poles like banners stretching toward the sky to protect the community ANUK a member of The Village Council monitors with his peers the respect of these Traditions special prayers are organized for the Yak in the monasteries these prayers are meant to protect the yak from disease es bad Omens and from the evil eye prayers are also made to bring rain snowfall and good pasture grasses [Music] like all Changas SoMo is preparing to harvest the famous woolly fibers with exceptional qualities which Yaks naturally lose at this time of [Music] year the males remain wild in nature so it is very difficult to tie them up and harvest their wool it sometimes takes four or five of us to subdue a male Yak after the Yaks have been tied up the men take the undercoat called Kulu and give it to women in the [Music] community like SoMo and ANUK men and women whisper and hum in the ear of the huge Yaks to calm them [Music] [Music] the underbelly Yak wo is used to make textile products while its fur called sitpa is better for making rope and a waterproof fabric these materials are an integral part of the ch was daily [Music] life village women spin the wool to make traditional dresses local rugs and blankets [Music] like its wool Yak leather is Central to chunga culture it is used to make traditional clothes and shoes and sometimes even enclosures doors or roof patches yeah particularly thick it must be softened to be worked once cleaned and scraped the Skins are left to dry then the rigid leather is beaten and worked by hand with repeated movements to heat it and to give it the desired shape a few hundred sheep and 2,000 Kashmir goats as hearty as the Yaks complete the changpa livestock and also provide them with high quality skins and wool like the axe the goats and sheep come back from the pasture every evening to spend the night with the chongas under the supervision of the Himalayan shepher these cattle have so far adapted to changes in the climate and the chunga's way of life [Music] but for elders like ANUK the very real risk of the yak disappearing is a bad Omen Yaks are present in many parts of the world and their numbers are constantly decreasing which is not a good thing if the yak disappears we Highland Nomads will lose everything how will we make our special local clothes our tents our maths in the future we will miss many things so before that happens I want to tell all of my fellow herders to educate their children not to abandon the Yaks to protect our Yak to maintain our ancestral tradition and culture I don't want to think about the day when the future generation will not know anything about this animal it's Kulu it's suan it's gona they won't know anything about the yak's many [Music] products the yak is both a mystical figure and a provider of vital resources for the nomadic community and its wool is an essential element for the survival of the chongas in these harsh and austere living conditions with its long and thick wool which protects it from the cold like a heavy Cape the yak attracts the attention of the ancient populations of the Tibetan Plateau they undertake to tame it then to domesticate it and thus adopt a companion who supplies materials but who is also ideal for facing the harsh Mountain conditions alongside them thanks to its formidable walking and carrying abilities they explore new high altitude territories together [Music] it is estimated that the period of yak domestication began in the Neolithic period around 7,500 years ago and it is in the narrow Gorges of the Upper indis Valley that the oldest known Engravings evoking the interaction between our two species are now visible [Music] these 4,000-year-old Rock sites perched at 1300 ft above sea level would also be the highest in the world feros DK veterinarian and geneticist works for the Indian Council of agricultural research in charge of monitoring the health of herds in the region he also wonders about the origins of the relationship between man and yak [Music] yeah it's a very beautiful petrol clipse you can see three Yaks wild Yaks I think most probably because uh um few people are hunting it one small medium and one large one uh there you can see clearly a dog also three person with bow and arrow so this depicts that they were also wild Ys which people used to hunt during these [Music] times uh this is the tail this is one person behind the yakk this is the tail of the yak then four legs uh one person is riding on the yak then this is the head of the yak with very prominent uh horns and one person is pulling and another person is also pull I can see two person cooling the yak so it's a very nice picture so in the Bronze Age true practices seem to coexist men continue to hunt the wild Yak while living with its domesticated descendant on a daily basis these inscriptions testify to the importance of the yak for the ancient settlements at the top of the world today there are only a few thousand wild Yaks left they all live in the most remote valleys of the Tibetan Plateau generally black in color they are much larger bulkier and leggy than their domesticated Descendants the males who can be aggressive measure up to 6 and 1/2 ft at the withers and can weigh almost 2,600 lb still close to its ancestor the wild Yak the domesticated Yak lives in the same geographical space and is often subject to Natural [Music] Selection feros D regularly visits the herders to ensure the good health of their Yaks around the large sailing Lakes of Chong Tong such as soar herds of yak gathered to enjoy the Abundant grasslands they are lakis one of 20 known breeds of domestic [Music] Yaks Yak has been related to ladaki since for thousands of years so the ancestors of this domestic Yaks comes from the wild Yak which we call it as boss mutus through through them the human beings have started domesticating it and the presently what we are seeing is B Grans it has a special ability to thrive in hypoxic condition in very extreme temperatures and it can survive a very scanty grasses it can survive eating snows and ice in winter this animals you know they have two coats of fiber one is undercoat which is uh we call it as Kulu and outer cour which we call it as [Music] hair we can see that this Yak have a very wide thorax uh with the huge air capacity their lungs are very big so that they can consume more air when the animal started Living with the people they prefer low altitude with more oxygen so their um mean chest capacity has reduced scientists have found that they have special genes like melum Gene uh which contributes which helps in more oxygen carrying capacity of this Y which helps them to adapt in this hypoxic and cold Aid conditions of Himalayas and Tibetan plateus this domestic y they are more docile because uh uh people have tamed it but still the male part of this semi-domestic Y is very difficult to control during the Millennia following its domestication the yak accompanies the people in their migrations in Mongolia via the alai chain as far as India with the great Mughal [Music] and in Central Asia which sees the development of the turkic people and also in Afghanistan for the materials it provides but also thanks to its qualities as a walker the yak shines throughout inner Asia's high altitudes along the mythical trade routes the salt road the t- road and of course the Silk Road the yak has thus accompanied and perhaps even favored exchanges between human populations and their access to new territories but in the 20th century mechanization pushed it out of commercial transport bringing the death Nell of Caravans this climber of high passes and tireless carrier has today been replaced by trucks and Yak hurting people have become rare in the Eastern Himalayas we encounter one of these peoples the masas live in Northeast India Bhutan and Southern Tibet they adopted the yak two Millennia ago and the yak remains a true pillar of their culture and traditions [Music] the Maas celebrate the yak through a show that perpetuates its symbolic place in their culture the yak dance marks the high points of the Year such as the departure of the broke and their Yaks for the spring transhumans my name is nering I'm from luong and I am a broke pass Yak herters are called broke pass people without Yaks are not broke pass brpass have no other means of subsistence than the yak our dance comes from the heart this Yak dance makes us feel in touch with the yak doing the yak dance protects us from death this is good for the development of the village and our community that's why I love to dance i' like to show our [Music] culture so the yak dance comes from our devotion we have a vision for the village doing the dance is like offering prayers to [Music] God this is how they celebrate the peace and prosperity that the animal symbolizes inviting it to dance among the people is meant to bring a blessing to their community and to the great journey ahead for the brpa and their yaks [Music] [Music] saring is a 66-year-old momas who lives with his family in the heart of a small village with his wife and their two children they raise on their wooden Farm around 50 cattle that they are preparing to move to Summer pastures y I have 37 Yaks males and females as well as 16 hybrids crosses between yak and cow [Music] [Music] the Yaks are veritable horns of Plenty all of our clothing from head to toe comes from the yak along with the butter and [Music] cheese we are very grateful to our father and mother but the Yaks feed us better than our [Music] parents a few few hours before departure and like every day of the year saring and his wife make Yak milk products that are the Staples of the masas [Music] table part of the chirpe yak cheese is sold to meet other household needs [Music] from the cream they obtain the very popular Yak butter which can be warmed up in a butter tea for everyone in the home the observation is the same milk production has dropped due to the increase in temperatures which are not suitable for yaks [Music] [Music] on this evening in may like every year sing's family is ready for the spring transhumans it will take them to the mountain pasture of broky 3200 ft higher at nearly 1300 ft above sea level on the border with Bhutan on the morning of the departure the Yaks who have sensed the time has come get strength by filling up on soaked cereals there is a peaceful and solemn [Music] atmosphere sing's wife bows down and veneration of the Buddha and his Dharma [Music] teaching when we move our herds we perform rights of offerings such as one for luck or one for fertility on the morning of the departure before for loading the Yaks and hybrids we burn incense we must pray to all of the deities and Dharma [Music] protectors we pray to all of the deities and Dharma protectors for the welfare of the livestock and humans so that they are protected from all harm and injury along the Route and all their wishes will be granted [Music] [Laughter] [Music] we never know how long we'll be out on the pastures a sufficient quantity of products like flour rice salt chilies and even tea leaves are loaded onto the YX the join lives of the masas and their Yaks has long been punctuated by this vital trans humans during summer the Yaks take advantage of the mountain pastures benefits cooler temperatures and richer pastures in return they offer the community all the elements necessary for its survival but the young masas accept less and less to adopt this life made of constraints and sacrifices and Rising temperatures which requires a transhumance that is always longer is hurting this age-old pastoral tradition [Music] nowadays the migration between bratsky and LeBron is very short and easy it only takes one day previously our transhumans lasted 12 to 13 days with difficulties rain snow no tarpine no tent we had to sleep under a rock or under a tree there used to be a lot of precipitation going up in the spring and a lot of snowfall going down in the fall sometimes our Provisions ran out on the way so we had to deal with hunger and thirst the decrease in the number of yaks is due to the lack of grass and water on the pastures because of global warming for these reasons the number of broke passs going to higher altitudes is decreasing as is the number of yaks in India the total population of yaks has gone from 77,000 heads to 58,000 and less than 10 years and breeders are using more crosses between Yaks and cows because these animals which are more resistant to heat are less dependent on these transhuman [Music] before there were fewer hybrids but today crosses have increased because they bringing more money than Yaks Yaks are adapted to the cold they have to be taken to high altitudes but our children refuse to live in these conditions now no one wants to climb higher the children are all at school in the valley and when we are dead the axe will die [Music] too I still hope our children will take care of the axe after they finish school tenin the son of taring came for the occasion to lend a hand to his father a moment he always looks forward to [Music] when I was little I likeed to follow my father just walking behind him my father taught me how to take care of the herd how to call them with different [Music] calls everything is interesting walking from one place to another climbing mountains going to new different places seeing new things walking with the cattle and my own family walking with me it's what I love about this [Music] trip my parents sent me to school to study and to get a job elsewhere so I don't want to disappoint them so I'll find a job but I see my father who's been doing this forever and the cattle have grown so now I think I want to continue here as we have a yak Farm I plan to continue it the survival of yaks in these mountains now depends on the self-sacrifice of these last families of broas to raise them at all costs as if it was about their own [Music] Survival in today's changing world how can we reinvent the destiny of the yak far from tradition [Music] the Indian government has established the national Yak Research Center in aronal mi here saral the director knows perfectly well the reasons for the decline of the bovid and he is seeking solutions to save the Yak in India the first thing is the transhuman system of yak management and the hardship associated with it to the yak rearers for the Hostile geoclimatic conditions so what we did to carve this problem we maintain Yak in our farm through sary system that means we keep our Yak around the year in a particular location without up and down migrations we believe this will be the future approach model of Y husbandry in our country and which is sufficient to attract young generations for the profitable year husbandry we believe that this will cutle the hardships which the Young Generation don't want to take they are betting on Yaks whose characteristics are better adapted to this new farming method among the local Yak population males are selected which show resistance to warmer temperatures and whose Offspring will have a good chance of withstanding Summers without migration to higher altitudes their lineage will be followed over several generations to confirm the hopes placed in it second problem behind the decline is the inferior quality of D plasm which leads to poor productivity and Prof profitability we have started molecular genetic characterization of yak and we have set up one a light Yak hard bull having Superior Bing values we drain them for cement collection then we process the cements gra prer and make c c straw for artificial ination of Y and those crab straws we use it in our farm and we also distribute those Yak crw to other Yak pockets in our country we believe that this will carve the ining problem what the farmers do faulty in managing their Ys because they use the same bus year after year for beating their females we have developed tools for prophylaxis diagnosis and treatment for the vulnerable bacterial viral and parasitic diseases of [Music] yak one of the foremost reason why the PO why is declining is the poor economic incentive to the yak reers so our aim is if we can increase the demand of the yak CCT then there will be demand of for supply and so the yak farmers will be ultimately benefited for example Yak produces two types of hairs outer Co Air and inner very very very fine and outer Co Air is generally waste but we have developed Technologies to valuate this outer cor here by blending with jot and uh sea pool and we have estimated that this technology alone can improve the economy of yak Farmers by 10 times [Music] breeding peoples have always selected particular characteristics in Yaks leading to the appearance of different breeds but in a changing world the new temptation to create a standardized animal brings a risk that of seeing The Disappearance of the yak's unique qualities shaped by Millennia of slow and profound adaptation [Music] as global warming intensifies and Lifestyles evolve the yak's future is uncertain the Indian vision of its future is however not the least enviable in China Yak breeding is now intended to satisfy a growing demand for meat so on their continent and of origin the wandering Yak is losing its sacred Aura and its link with our species it is in Switzerland where you wouldn't expect it that the yak seems to find new followers who are more respectful of all that it embodies long confined to its area of Asian origin the yak is now trying its luck on new colder Highlands in North America or [Music] Europe in the Alps rosalo Blan Yak breeder and caravaner lives with Her Herd on her small white Yak farm purched at an altitude of 6,000 ft in the Val de by spending time with bovids and observing them from every angle she came to understand the animals potential for Rosa living this Mutual adaptation is a bit like going back to the origin of domestication of the yak as the animal has retained a complex personality and a strong wild [Music] Instinct I always find it interesting to observe the effect of co- domestication between the animal and the original peoples who lived together and the yak I would say is like the Tibetan it has the calm side of Buddhism and meditation and it also has the explosive side of a warrior and a bandit and living with it after 14 years you become a bit like that too and it suits me very well I can be very calm but I can be quite explosive too so I identify with them a lot for a long time the rare Yaks outside their native lands were in zoos far from the altitudes or the cool temperatures necessary for them back in the mountains they gradually regain their original functions what is interesting with the Yak in Switzerland is that they live on the steep slopes and the mountain pastures where our local cows no longer go that's because we developed them and push them to be bigger heavier to provide higher yields so now they're too heavy to go up onto the steep slopes where they used to graze so we have no more local breeds that can inhabit these places and we have to find another Beast another possibility to take advantage of this land it is also an animal which does not need much care it's very hearty very easy to keep in a free stall outside this can be interesting for part-time farmers who do it on the side maybe it's people who have taken over a small farm from their parents and who want to keep it going while doing something else kubai is my first Yak it all started with kubai when I saw a classified ad and I was told that it was a wild animal that I shouldn't take it it was dangerous but right away I had a special relationship with him somehow he brought the Yaks here he led the herd he established it down here it was his role to create the herd and now he is old he has changed a lot he's very calm compared to the beginning he is the beginning of my relationship with the yak he's my first master in the sense that I never read much about Yaks explanations of how it worked I had to observe them I am obliged to read them to decipher their language to understand them [Music] when there were physical problems we realized that often we didn't know how to treat them here and that's when I started with the touch to see if I could help them and I realized that it was a means of communication for the animals for once I'm not asking them to move or to do something we're just feeling they can answer they can say if they like it or if they don't like it he has moments of deep relaxation when he falls asleep with me next to him though my first Jacks I couldn't approach [Music] them but I never force it I leave them be and the youngest comes to me he's the the first Jack that really comes to me in this game it's very [Music] cute at an altitude of 16,500 Ft in the Himalayas and at 6, ,500 ft in Switzerland It Is by walking that the relationship between the man or woman and the yak is fully expressed whether hiking trekking or caravanning they must be in total complicity so that foot and hoof regulate their [Music] step traveling with the Yaks is perhaps one of the strong moments we live with the [Music] herd to run with them when the herd follows me are absolutely magical moments of wild strength it awakens a force in us too we become a yak for a moment and it's luminous for me it's magnificent it's a sharing a belonging tapping into our wild energy that we carry but rarely use in our [Music] society to communicate I have to sit in the herd I have to earn my place as a leader by Leading them where there is grass water by making choices that are reasonable for them that are not dangerous for them I think they really watch if I make smart choices it has become a partnership where they can contribute their knowledge they find passages through a difficult Terrain Offroad they are so much better at this than us sometimes their perception of the territory is perfect though I do not understand it yet I know they are right based on their senses and their understanding [Music] the fact that the Yaks are here in Switzerland it brings something to us we humans adapt first and we reveal the Wild and gentle aspects of ourselves the yak will take much longer to adapt to us on the Tibetan Plateau where it comes from across the entire Himalayan Ark that it has conquered alongside us and elsewhere where it tries to accompany us the yak remains a sizable Ally for human societies but at a time of climatic and social upheavals the yak must again show resistance and adaptation to survive if it succeeds with or without our help it will continue to be an Irreplaceable guide and companion for us between the Summits and high plateaus on the Heights as well as on the slopes [Music] 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Channel: wocomoWILDLIFE

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Keywords: Wilfdlife, ox, prairies, agrilculture, animals, documentary, wild, domestication, Aurochs, Mesopotamia, origins, raising, farms, tradition, cattle, festivals, religion, traditional, nature, earth, history, plains, conquest, wildlife documentary, arte, bbc, nat geo, national geographic, exclusive, cultivation, field, farmers, farming, crop, yak, summits, Himalaya, tibet, Pakistan, antelopes, eotragus, Changpas, nomads, villages, travel, Buddhist, Yaq, mountain, white yak, transhumance, tribes, ladakh, threat, migration, winter, fertility

Id: SXTSiUqEtBw

Length: 51min 5sec (3065 seconds)

Published: Wed May 08 2024