Thursday 12 June 2014

Mountain Cattlemen

At $AU2000 each (more if you hit one on the road), these yaks represent real wealth. The pastures here go on for miles, over flat, marshy, treeless countryside. This is the edge of the Tibetan Plateau at 3,500m altitude. It’s the first land we have seen where every inch of topsoil is not being cultivated. I guess summer is too short to grow anything other than grass.

As we drove through on this summer day the Tibetan prayer flags were blowing out straight, rain was sweeping across, I put the temperature at about 8C, although the non-Victorians swore it was sub-zero, and the vintage cars are not water or wind proof. As you can see by the pics, the locals, descended from Tibetans, have adapted and are tough. It’s easy to imagine how the Tibetans have given the Chinese so much trouble, and beaten them, in centuries past.

1 comment:

  1. yes. the yaks are very important to them. and they are really" rich" .
    -- Stephane

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