Wild Yak Hunting in Northern Tibet: Local Hunting Culture in the Context of Conservation Initiatives and State Policies
Zusammenfassung der Projektergebnisse
This short (5 week) field research project aimed to document hunting techniques and cultural knowledge and practices associated with wild yak (Bos grunniens), an endangered species of the far north Changthang region of the Tibetan Plateau (People’s Republic of China). It also examined whether modern conservation laws where having any impact on hunting of wild yak by local pastoralists. The research results reveal that hunting of wild yak is dangerous and difficult due to the potentially aggressive behaviour of disturbed or wounded animals (which can weigh up to 1000 kg). Thus, the favoured technique involves a single hunter who also ensures he has some shelter (e.g. rock formations) to protect himself from charging animals. When compared with many Tibetan narratives (historical and mythical) about hunting wild yak, we find the contemporary hunting practice differs completely from earlier accounts which appear highly romanticized. Our data also show that the motivation for hunting wild yak has changed over the past few decades. Formerly wild yak was hunted mainly for meat, to seasonally enhance available food supplies in a marginal pastoralist economy. As pastoral production has gradually improved in the region due to government support, meat hunting has declined in important. However, due to government policies of expanding domestic animal numbers and grazing range into more northerly and previously unused areas of the Tibetan Plateau, pastoralists have come into increasing conflict with wild yak. Wild yak bulls take domestic female yak from herds to mate with, and they often kill domestic bulls while doing so. Thus, wild bulls are hunted to try and stop this net loss of domestic animals. A robust and workable system of cash compensation for pastoralists who face losses would stop most of this type of hunting. The study found that strict, modern wildlife protection laws have a big impact of hunting, with much hunting having either stopped or being done in secret in very remote areas (which implies lower numbers killed due to logistical problems). Interestingly, the ethical system of Buddhism, the local religion of all the pastoralists, appears to play no role in the recent cessation of hunting. It is only fear of legal punishments that shape hunters’ behaviour. In addition to technical and conservation related questions, this research also added new data about cultural dimensions of hunting found in the research area. A large find of petroglyphs depicting hunting of wild yak were recorded, along with some Neolithic tools. Material on the cult of a hunting goddess from the Ge-sar Epic whose cult sites are located in the region was also collected. A new body of folk beliefs about a brown strain of wild yaks was also recorded. All of this data reveals the long-term importance of this wild species for subsistence patterns, as well as the whole local understanding of the past and the cultural dimensions of the landscape within which people situate their lives.
