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1st
Keepers of the Mountains: A group of Layaps showing off their best yaks during the Royal Highlands Festival in Laya, Bhutan.
Photographer: Sonam Tshering, Bhutan.
2nd
At dusk, a large herd of yaks rumbles back to the village of its owners. Yaks of the village are led to and fro grazing grounds collectively by local herders, who routinely rotate the responsibility from household to household. Spiti valley, India. July 2018.
Photographer: Abhimanyu Pandey, India.
3rd
(Among The Giants) The High Altitude Herd, A yak navigates the steep, rocky terrain directly among the towering peaks of Shishper Sar. In the heart of the Karakoram, these animals are perfectly adapted to the thin air and vertical landscapes, serving as the primary source of survival for pastoralists living behind the Ultar massif. Location, Shishper Meadows Hunza
Photographer: Deedar Jalal, Pakistan.
Afroze Numa, one of the last Wakhi shepherdesses of Shimshal Valley, Hunza, Pakistan, has spent her life walking the mountains with her flocks and yaks, a craft passed down from her mother and grandmothers. Each year, she guided them from Shimshal village to the high pastures of Shimshal Pass, nearly 4,800 metres above sea level. This was her final journey. A quiet farewell to a way of life she has loved, and a tradition slowly disappearing from the rangelands of the Hindu Kush Himalaya. For generations, Wakhi women like Numa migrated annually with their flocks to alpine pastures, producing dairy products that sustained livelihoods and enabled education in Shimshal. Today, climate change, economic shifts, and social change threaten this fragile pastoral system, placing both culture and rangelands at risk.
Photographer: Taseer Baig, Pakistan
“In Dhye, Upper Mustang, women sit together in the afternoon sun spinning yak wool outside their homes. Nearly every day, those who remain in the village gather like this — weaving, talking, and sharing news as they work. Yak wool, collected from local herds, is spun and woven into chupas, shawls, and blankets used through long winters and passed down within families as heirlooms. In a settlement where migration has reduced the population to only a handful of households, such gatherings sustain more than material needs. Work unfolds collectively, blurring the boundaries between labor and companionship. Stories are exchanged alongside techniques learned over decades, preserving skills rarely written down but carried through practice. Against a stark high-altitude landscape, these daily rituals continue, maintaining social bonds and cultural memory in a village where communal life grows increasingly fragile.”
Photographer: Tulsi Rauniyar, Nepal
