A Moorkhun Yak Herder’s Winter

Local yak herders brave the elements to rear the hardy bovines for a living.

The valley of Gojal in District Hunza lies in the extreme north of Pakistan and shares borders with Afghanistan and China. One of its villages, Moorkhun, is located on the Karakoram Highway, beside the Hunza River and about 180 km upriver from the city of Gilgit.

Several families in the village are yak herders who brave the elements to rear the hardy bovines.

Take a look at these pictures by a local, Tariq Hussain, whose brother, Ashraf-Uddin is a yak herder.

Ashraf-Uddin and his herd.

The name ‘Moorkhun’ allegedly comes from the local language, Wakhi and means ‘rainhouse’ (moor’ translates to rain, and ‘khun’ to house).

All the residents of Moorkhun speak Wakhi, which is an Indo-European language from the Eastern Iranian branch of the language family that is still spoken in the Wakhan District of Afghanistan. It is also spoken in Northern Pakistan, China, and Tajikistan. However, the Moorkhun locals can also speak Urdu, Brushaski, English, and basic Chinese.

Yak Pastoralism

Yak pastoralism in Pakistan is confined to the northern areas and Chitral. The yak is the largest and heaviest of all Tibetan animals. The native name for the wild yak is dzoogh in Wakhi, termini in the Hunza, Nagar, and Gojal areas, dong in Baltistan is ‘dong’, and bapoo in the Gilgit and Astore areas.

Zakir Ahmed, a native of Hunza explained yak pastoralism in the area and said that the locals “sell them and use them for meat in the winters. They use them for meat for weddings, milk them and make butter and many other dairy products”.

What do you think of this beautiful and majestic animal and winter in Hunza? Let us know in the comments below.