Pastoralism and Rangeland Management on the Tibetan Plateau in ...

groups engaged in agriculture. For the Tibetan Plateau yak-keeping is such an
activity that is strongly related to the brog’pa who are the experts in a region
where the vast majority of all yaks are bred <strong>and</strong> raised, <strong>and</strong> where the yak has
been the object of significant research over long periods. 38
Photo 3: Specialised pastoralists manage to utilise high pastures
in the Karo La region (5010 m)
(photograph © Hermann Kreutzmann August 2, 1998)
A third utilisation strategy – designated as detached mountain pastoralism
(Figure 4) – is a more recent strategy reflecting societal transformations, collectivisation
<strong>and</strong> forced sedentarisation resulting in permanent settlement in
high-altitude grazing grounds. Basically, long-distance migrations ceased to
exist <strong>and</strong> were replaced by short-distance migrations at a rather high altitude of
permanent abodes, usually above 3000–4000 m.
38 Cf. Wiener, Han Jianlin, <strong>and</strong> Long Ruijun 2003. “Tibetans place so much value on it
that the Tibetan term for yak, nor, can be translated as ‘wealth’” (Miller 2008: 8).
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