If "Bhutan Needs Yak and Yak Herders" then Please read my story.
My name is Gangri
Norbu, and I am probably 8 years old? I usually rejoin my herd late like the
late spring of the place. Spring and summer combined are the most prosperous
months in a year and lasts about 5 months. I graze with my herd and keep myself
healthy, strong and most of all muscular. That’s because I have a business to
defend my herd form irritating young intruders. When it’s winter again, the
grass becomes scant and I leave my herd for better pastures to graze on. The
cycle continues over and over again.
I have a loving owner
that cares me and my herd more than he cares about himself. He keep on
following us everywhere we go because he fears some notorious wild dogs and
elusive tigers hovering in the jungle might attack us like they did to my
predecessor, Hamsey Dawa.
Of late, I have heard
many people discuss about the fate of my relatives in areas like Merak and
saktheng in the East. Dagala, Sephu, and Bumthang in the central region and
Soe, Yaksa, Laya, Lingshi, Lunana and Haa in the West. Unending and
relentless discussions like those bring chilling sensations to my spine and
instills a sense of worry and anxiety in me.
It has not only
become a hot selling news in print and broadcasting media but has also been
discussed extensively on online forums, blogs and even on facebook and twitter.
I think of it every day and every night and reality is even more saddening
because decades down the line, I foresee prospects grim and ebbing for my
species in many aspects.
Firstly, free
education our country has played its role. It has become a fashion of educating
people in the name of literacy and development. People pursue education in the
want of fame, prestige, title, and honors, and yes, money too and not of need
for learning morals and ethics. Sadly most educated people today are nothing more
than a half empty drums that jingles most. I will not be surprised if a survey
shows that the most educated and trained people are perhaps the least
productive players in an organization.
Education today has become a desire driven and desires, as lord Buddha said are
the main cause of the sorrow. To be very practical, who would want to live a
remote life as nomad? The stains of milk that stinks are too much for the
clean nose our educated lot!
Secondly, Global
warming is seriously hampering our habitats. They call it an effect of climate
change. I don’t know what that shit is all about but surely the air has become
bit warmer. There has been decline in the frequency of snow fall. Fast
disappearances of White Mountains in the north are today the living testimony
to prove that. Mind you I got bitten by mosquito last summer, at an altitude of
3800 meters above the sea level.
Thirdly, the noble
initiative from the golden throne has been used as against the royal
intentions. The decree that that legalized the harvest of a fungal plant known
locally as Cordeycepts has further made the lives of our owners not only easy
and comfortable but also made them lazy and easy pickers. They were already
making good fortune form the milk which actually belonged to my calf(s). They
actually thrived selling our products like Butter, Cheese, milk, and chugo. They even shaved our whole body and took away
all our fluffy hairs and usually kept us cold all through the season!
Human greed are
limitless and they are by far the most cunning and cruel species on this
planet. In some part of the country, my relatives are mercilessly slaughtered.
And it’s even more painful to know that our remains are considered a specialty
of the region. As Yak sha, (yak meat) Yak masha (raw yak meat), Yak sha juma
(the sausage of yak intestine)
Coming back to the
fungal plant harvesting, I sincerely feel that, it has done more good. The boom
harvest surely was a boon that lifted the standards of our owners to next
higher level. The amount of monetary income it fetched enabled our owners to
acquire anything between earth and the sky. From a land in metro cities like Thimphu
and Phuntsholing to building mighty five storied building. From latest hunting
bows and arrows to high tech boots and north face garments. From ray ban
glasses and weather proof jackets to tissot watches and Swiss knives. The test
of the fun and easy life in cities have lured them and lured them deep.
For our owners, to
return to their origin and run after us will just become a history in coming
days, because everything is evident that they no longer wanted to be an unpaid
border guard, especially in the north when they are already having tough job in
hand with us. As long as they have the means to relinquish their settlement
here in the north with us, there will be no stopping point for them because the
Article 7, sub section 7 of the Constitution of the Kingdom of Bhutan confers
them the fundamental right to reside (everywhere) within Bhutan.
Of late, my loving and
caring owner has fallen sick and it’s been about a month I last saw him.
Without him, I see a bleak prospect when it comes to our survival. This is
because; his children are dead against their old father running after us in
rain, in snow and in sun. They think it’s a tough call for an old man to run
after ever expanding and multiplying herd.
Whatever may be
the outcome, it has always been my pleasure and privilege to have grazed on the
most fertile grazing pastures in the beautiful mountains of Shingkhar. To have
met such a loving owner is even more heart melting.
For now, I wish my
species will not only survive but will thrive in the sacred valley of Drukyul,
because just like any other species, we too don’t want to face our extinction.
It is my only hope that we continue to thrive here and here only, for there is
no better place for us to continue our generation than this
beautiful mother earth.
To elaborate more,
Bhutan and yaks share a very special bond. This dates back to the days of my
predecessor Lhadar Gaw, when he went on to became the favorite pet animal of
the third dragon king. Not only that, few decades ago, legendary yaks like
Singye Dawa, Dongka, Dongkar Sechung, Yangka Norbu, Serpola and Lhasa
Wanngchuk and all used to be the talking point amongst the folks in the
idyllic and yak conducive atmosphere of Shingkhar.
Thank you all for
listening to a story from a Yak like me.
