Yak and life around yak

Yak is an animal that lives from 2,200 meters up to 5,500 meters of elevation above sea level. Nepalese mountains are very favorable for yak to live. There are lots of yak in Tibet, Mongolia and part of China. The use of Yak depends on the area; depend with religion, landscape, community and many other things. Most of the mountain people in the Nepalese mountains who are Buddhist but still they consume yak meat. Yak meat seems one of the delicacies during feast and festivals. Some communities do not slaughter yak but still they are OK with yak meat. If you go inside the kitchen of mountain area it is quiet frequent that something hanging, looks more brown and black in color, those are specially yak intestine filled with yak blood and fat from yak. The mountain family supposed to cut part of it every day and mixed with their vegetables to make it tastier and nutritious.

Yak hair was traditionally used to make different types of clothing and even certain type of carpets. Now the wool of the Yak is processed to make blankets and shawls in the city area. Yak skin was utilized to make dresses and sometimes as wall hangings and curtains as it is very strong and durable. Even the Yak tail is very useful for many Hindu and Buddhist people in different type of the rituals. They use yak tail as spiritual fan for god and goddess.

Yak milk is very nutritious; people can drink directly after boiling it or is utilized to make yak cheese.  The curd made out of yak milk is churned to get butter and that butter is used for cooking as well as butter lamp for the monasteries located in the area.

The economy of the area and yak having great relation since long time ago. A family who owns the bigger herds of yak considered prosperous than family having smaller herds of yak. Lots of nomadic family dedicated taking care of yak and take them to the pastures located in the different area depending on the season.

In mountain area they practice hybridization of Yak with cattle, specially the cows from the area. The hybrid one popular by the name Jhopke are greatly used to carry mountain gears belong to the people who are going for the trekking and expedition. They are even stronger than the yaks. The hybrids has the most of the fitness characters of yak or even stronger than the yak, the female hybrids even utilized for better production. Crossing the domestic yak with wild yak is also a very common practice. It is occurred naturally over centuries especially in the area where the wild yaks are frequent.  During the summer time the herders set up the camp at relatively higher elevation and sometime even whole family move to mountain area to take care of their animals. During the winter time they supposed to go down as the grassland in the high mountains get covered with snow and temperature go extremely low making uncomfortable for yak and their caretakers.