[Assam] 2husband Film/schools-Superstar Yak News: from 16, 000 feet in Himalayas - National Geographic film maker

[umesh sharma]

Hi,

[ http://www.sonam.net.tc/ (click 'home' link to read details) The movie has english subtitles -since even Assamese cannot understand the language of a place mere 300 miles from Guwahati. The place reminded me of Shangrila (the lost paradize) in Himalayas from the book "The Lost Horizon" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shangri-La 
and Lobsang the main husband in the movie reminded me of the Tibetan author Lobsang Rampa (his book "The Third Eye") who was actually a white guy who had some visions and saw it all (?? - whatever he saw was really beautiful about Lhasa and Tibet http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Third_Eye)]

>From the filmaker whose film was screened at National Geographic Society HQ in Washington DC I milked this bit of info about the super stars of his movie - the endangered animal Yak - looks like buffalo, has  long hair like a girl and gives milk and meat .

Yak is an animal which is always in motion - migrating from 5,000 feet in Himalayan foothills (where it prefers to stay in snowy winters) to heights of 16,000 feet (in summers). The Yak shepherds on whom the movie is made are tribals from Arunanchal Pradesh (land of the sun's horizon) and follow the yak herds --unlike American cowboys who make the cows follow them. 

So Yaks go where they please and herdsmen have to keep up with them.

Yak breeding and research center was where the filmmaker got most of his info from but his stars are no those kept in the research farm - which is at 8,000 feet - and it is believed to have given some proteins etc to its yaks so they they do not want to leave 8,000 feet hieght - neither wanting to go lower down in cold winters and nor wanting to climb up to cooler climes in warm weather - just stay fit at 8,000 feet. A yak was once brought to Guwahati but it died due to heat soon after.

 I think it likes near freezing temperatures i.e. 32F or 0C.

http://www.icar.org.in/nrcyak/main.html
Center's website

http://193.43.36.103/ag/AGAInfo/resources/documents/WAR/war/V0600B/v0600b0p.htm
Paper by Director of Yak center
 

Cross Breeding: The movie shows breeding of the yak and the herdsmen discuss their own needs -like yaks. Thats where the concept of one wife having two husbands comes up - one husband has to keep following the yaks on their migration up and down the mountains - the other takes care of the wife in the absence of the first one. Not a widespread thing in this remote region even and looked down upon by the Buddhists - and their famous Tawang Monastery  in Arunanchal Pradesh -of Indo -Tibetan style(shown in the film in detail). Read "home' link from http://www.sonam.net.tc/

. Their masks and forms closely resemble the ones from Mongolia's Buddhists' exhibits  I had seen the last time I went to National Geographic Society's HQ in DC- May 2006.

so back to breeding -- the  male yak is cross bred with a cow
and it produces Juka and Joe (i think). Juka is the male child and is impotent used for carrying loads (like horse-donkey output : mule). The female can give birth and also milk --it gives more milk than yak but has same yak quality milk (runs the herdsmen's economy). 

This female child is again bred with a male cow (bull) and produces "cout" which gives even more milk -same yak quality.
This 'cout" is again bred with a male cow (bull) and gives birth to "tui" which is then eaten up as a child. "Tui" is produced so that the "cout" would give milk - but if the "tui" is allowed to live then it would drink up the milk. Sad story but perhaps thats how natural people live in harsh environs.


There are 700,000 yaks in the world - 300,000 are in India - all along the Himalayan Range - not just in AP.

Any comments?

The film maker is seeking marketing tips to market it globally - any suggestions?

Umesh

PS: It is a tale about morals, lust, passion, environment, yaks, snow leopards. One wife two lovers-cum-husbands. wife dies in end -monogamy moral from a movie about Mongoloid looking Buddhists by Hindu muslim film making couple  who followed yaks and horses on their migration route to shoot the movie - sometimes the same horse and yak could not be find again since it disappeared into the jungle after the first shoot ( $2,000 per day expense) 2 years in the making -----promoted by Andhra Pradesh movie maker -who recommended them to Nat Geographic and funded by a Rajasthani Assamese  mountaineer/businessman.  

The tribespeople speak only their dialect and the communication with film makers was thru Hindi. Hindi it seems is the medium of instruction there since there is no written language/script of the local languages (25 of them)
    

Umesh Sharma

Washington D.C. 

1-202-215-4328 [Cell]

Ed.M. - International Education Policy
Harvard Graduate School of Education,
Harvard University,
Class of 2005

http://www.uknow.gse.harvard.edu/index.html (Edu info)

http://hbswk.hbs.edu/ (Management Info)




www.gse.harvard.edu/iep  (where the above 2 are used )




http://jaipurschool.bihu.in/
       
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