Yamaguchi, Takayoshi. “Transition of Mountain Pastoralism: An Agrodiversity Analysis of the Livestock Population and Herding Strategies in Southeast Tibet, China”.  Human Ecology (2011). 39:141-145

In this paper Yamaguchi discusses his findings of the current status of mountain pastoralism and its future viability. In the past vertical mobile grazing was typical but as social, economic and political changes are occurring in Southeast Tibet so do modes of grazing.  Through analyzing rangeland environment, livestock variety, and grazing form it made it possible to look at livestock distribution. Yamaguchi states that his purpose is to evaluate the relationship between rangeland policy and the actual situation in the environment.  In the research conducted management diversity, agro-biodiversity, biophysical diversity and organization diversity were all taken into consideration. Yamaguchi also looked at the number of households engaged in mobile pastoralism in 1983, 1990, and 2003. This information will help supply the data needed to look at the difference from when mobile pastoralism was more of a government mandated job or community job than a family household based job. In conclusion, data showed that grazing was shifting from mobile pastoralism to sedentary forms of farming. Animal husbandry is dying out and farming is becoming more prevalent than in the past.  In the Southeastern Tibetan communities observed it was shown that families will resort to trading butter for their herds grazing on the neighbors property. It is being shown that milking yaks can be more profitable than eating the animals.

As I read this study I began to realize how much animal husbandry was previously a part of Tibet. Farming was not profitable in the past but now it is becoming more and more popular. Understanding this makes it understandable why Tibetan refugees had to be taught and trained how to work the soil in India. By going to Bylakuppe I hope learn the process that they had to go through to learn farming techniques.