{"id":10633,"date":"2016-11-16T15:51:28","date_gmt":"2016-11-16T10:06:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dorjegurung.com\/blog\/?p=10633"},"modified":"2026-03-13T22:05:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T22:05:13","slug":"climate-change-and-the-dilemma-of-a-yak-herder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dorjegurung.com\/blog\/2016\/11\/climate-change-and-the-dilemma-of-a-yak-herder\/","title":{"rendered":"Climate Change and The Dilemma of a Yak Herder"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The election of Donald Trump to the Presidency of the United States of America threatens to undo all the gains we have made with combating climate change. Afterall, what may well have been the biggest threat to our planet for a while now, he believes is a hoax.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The people in the district of Mustang &#8212; where <a href=\"https:\/\/dorjegurung.com\/blog\/2016\/07\/the-ugly-face-of-tourism-in-mustang-in-the-nineties\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">I am from<\/a> in Nepal &#8212; are suffering from the consequences of climate change. The documentary below about the major life-changing dilemma a nomadic yak herder&nbsp;faces has everything to do with just that: climate change and its consequences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"The Last Yak Herder of Dhe- Part 1\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/7W4M10EipA4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"The Last Yak Herder of Dhe- Part 2\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/gwfU3GfdpGI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>But climate change is not the only force disrupting and shaping&nbsp;the <a href=\"https:\/\/dorjegurung.com\/blog\/2016\/07\/al-jazeera-correspondent-mustang-a-kingdom-on-the-edge\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">social, economic, political and natural climate<\/a> of the very very fragile, other-worldly, ancient and traditional worlds of the Mustangis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Recent discovery of uranium, after opening the area for up for <a href=\"https:\/\/dorjegurung.com\/blog\/2016\/07\/the-ugly-face-of-tourism-in-mustang-in-the-nineties\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">tourism<\/a> (<a href=\"https:\/\/dorjegurung.com\/blog\/2015\/11\/the-local-people-should-improve-the-quality-of-their-lives-but-let-them-not-wear-ties\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">dollars<\/a>) in the early nineties &#8212; following its&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/dorjegurung.com\/blog\/2015\/11\/the-local-people-should-improve-the-quality-of-their-lives-but-let-them-not-wear-ties\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">neglect<\/a>&nbsp;pretty much the entire modern history of the country &#8212; promises to unleash again the same force: greed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote twitter-tweet tw-align-center is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>Minister Pandey on Uranium discovery. It&#8217;ll b miracle if <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Mustang?src=hash\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">#Mustang<\/a> get&#8217;s a share of profit. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/0jT8XzBO7K\">https:\/\/t.co\/0jT8XzBO7K<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/UODYluI9d9\">pic.twitter.com\/UODYluI9d9<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2014 Dorje Gurung (@Dorje_sDooing) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Dorje_sDooing\/status\/749910677695913984\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">July 4, 2016<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote twitter-tweet tw-align-center is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>Abt Mustang civilization, which has never really mattered. (Uranium, like tourism, will cuz of profits 4 KTM elite.) <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/wEk1zHiksC\">https:\/\/t.co\/wEk1zHiksC<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2014 Dorje Gurung (@Dorje_sDooing) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Dorje_sDooing\/status\/780691786792435712\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">September 27, 2016<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">References<\/span>:<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"p1\"><em>MyRepublica (July 2016).<\/em>&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.myrepublica.com\/news\/1356#\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Uranium mine confirmed in Upper Mustang<\/a>. The article contains an embedded <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/ZUtXupg20L8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">video<\/a> of the site and conversation with a geologist, amongst others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Nepal Rastriya Saptahik<\/em> (\u092b\u093e\u0932\u094d\u0917\u0941\u0928 \u0969, \u0968\u0966\u096d\u0967). <a href=\"http:\/\/nepal.ekantipur.com\/news\/2015-02-15\/8062.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u0968\u096b \u0938\u092f \u0935\u0930\u094d\u0937 \u092a\u0941\u0930\u093e\u0928\u094b \u0915\u0902\u0915\u093e\u0932<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"p1\"><em>Nepali Times<\/em> (June-July 2014): <a href=\"http:\/\/nepalitimes.com\/article\/review\/the-last-yak-herder-of-dhe-review,1469\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Climate Refugees<\/a>. Review of the above documentary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><em>Nepali Times<\/em> (July 2010): <a href=\"http:\/\/nepalitimes.com\/news.php?id=17269#\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Climate refugees in Mustang<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"p1\"><em>TheThirdPole.net&nbsp;(<\/em><span class=\"s1\">Nov 2015): <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thethirdpole.net\/2015\/11\/02\/high-and-dry-in-mustang\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">High and Dry in Mustang<\/a>. Nepal\u2019s most arid region is getting even less rain than it did before, forcing villagers to relocate.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"p1\"><em>Nepali Times<\/em>: <a href=\"https:\/\/nepalitimes.atavist.com\/high-and-dry-upper-mustang\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">High and dry<\/a>. The same article as the preceding one but with more photos and visuals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Climate change, which the President-elect Donald Trump calls a hoax, is real&#8230;painfully real in many parts of the world, including in the district of Mustang where I come from in Nepal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":10634,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"#ClimateChange and The Dilemma of a #YakHerder. #Mustang #Nepal #Tibetan","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[152],"tags":[302,279,205,608,395],"class_list":["post-10633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-kathmandu-mustang-nepal","tag-climate-change","tag-donald-trump","tag-mustang","tag-mustang-district","tag-yak-herder"],"blocksy_meta":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.dorjegurung.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/yaks-of-mustang-feat-image.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2Jbro-2Lv","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dorjegurung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dorjegurung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dorjegurung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dorjegurung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dorjegurung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10633"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.dorjegurung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10633\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29807,"href":"https:\/\/www.dorjegurung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10633\/revisions\/29807"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dorjegurung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dorjegurung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dorjegurung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dorjegurung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}