The Yak in the Year’s Winding Days
As September nears its end, the grassland flora makes its last hurrah with its most surprising flowers and fruits, sweet-tasting nectars, and red berries that children eagerly scramble to collect. Heavy, loud insects buzz around this last bounty, marking the end of their lives and that of a yearly cycle. The animals will soon have grazed all that is left, and by late October, the pasture will be a landscape of yellowish brown. Oats will be harvested, dried in neat, tripod-shaped bunches, waiting to be gathered and stored as animal winter feed to make up for the depleted grassland. Late autumn is the time when humans and their animals prepare for the coming winter, with its clear, deep blue skies and still, frozen air.
Some animals are selected to provide food for the winter months ahead, which occurs only once a year, a task performed by the men, while the women assist with cutting and sorting the meat. Everything is used: sausages are made from the guts and the meat is sliced into strips, and hung to dry. Skins are tanned into leather, and bones and horns are preserved for further use. Every family has a feast and invites friends to share the bounty, unique to this time. For the rest of the year, meat will be scarce, with dry meat being the only source, carefully added to noodle soup or eaten with tsampa and butter.
Tibetan nomads are Buddhist, and killing is considered a transgression. Since animals are their primary source of livelihood, this is considered unavoidable and the nomads compensate by making the yak's passing as humane as possible, keeping it to a minimum, restricting it to a specific time, and ensuring nothing is wasted. A small tuft of each slaughtered animal’s hair is collected and added to those of past years, hung in the family shrine room, where they are all remembered and prayed for. This manner of taking only what is needed contributes to preserving the natural equilibrium between man and nature, ensure the best outcome for humans and animals alike.
