Ship on the Plateau: the Yaks
2 min readYaks live in the alpine region throughout the year, wearing thick and long hair all over and there being dense masses of hair which may be up to over a foot especially on the neck, on the forelegs and hind legs and on the tail.
Besides their cold-proof long hair, yaks also boast their abilities to climb snow ridges, walk across the glaciers and pass through Daban(the mountain pass or the col) as though walking upon flat ground; with a long and arduous journey carrying heavy things, they will neither sweat nor be short of breath. They are adaptable especially to the cold weather, the heavy snow, the icy wind and the extremely cold climates, which make the tough character of yaks to be adaptable to severe environments. That why yaks have earned the name of the “ship on the plateau”. Because of their unique transport capacity on the plateau, yaks become an indispensable partner of the Tajik and Kirgiz herders.
When the herds need to move to the new pasture, yaks may help a lot. Such animals have dense, long hair as well as a pair of strong horns, which are very imposing. In the dead of the night, when people camp out in the wilderness, the adult yaks will keep their heads outside and lie down in a circle so as to enclose their cubs in the middle; every one of them is like a loyal guard devoted to one’s duty and prevent their cubs from the invasion of other beasts, so even the extremely ferocious wolves do not dare come close. There are anumber of moving stories circulated among the Kirgiz herders about how the yaks fought the fiendish wolves and kill them with their horns on the cliffs.
Therefore, the Kirgiz people regard yaks as their hero.
