old men and yaks

October 13, 2001

Today's Reading:
Autumn Across America by Edwin Way Teale, The Gilgit Game by John Keay

This Year's Reading:
2001 Book List

Still in the mood for Central Asia on film, Nancy and I were delighted to hear that Himalaya, a movie about yak caravans in Nepal, is playing at Cable Car Cinema. How could we pass up a movie about yaks? So it was off to Providence for a late lunch (or very early dinner) at Taste of India (mushroom saag mmm good) and the 5:00 show of Himalaya, which used to be titled Caravan back when it was nominated for an Oscar in 1999.

We hung out in the cafe at the Cable Car, sipping chai before the movie. Nancy says the chai at the Cable Car comes the closest to our first experience of chai at Saturn in Santa Cruz (back in the distant mists of time). The cafe is decorated with movie posters and snapshots of cats. One wall is just totally thick with snapshots of cats. They're haphazardly stuck on bulletin boards or off the bulletin boards. It's like the bulletin boards overflowed onto the walls. There are Polaroids, postcards, 4x6 prints, faded 3x5 prints, even a couple of photocopies. I have no idea how this got started or whose cats these are, but it's quite a collection.

We snuggled into one of the couches with our all you can eat popcorn, and watched the show.

Himalaya is the story of a small village in the Dolpo region of Nepal and its annual winter yak caravan to take their salt to market in the valley and trade it for grain. They keep talking about going to the "land of grain" almost like it's a mythical place.

The plot centers around competition between two rival caravan leaders for the leadership of the tribe. Tinle, the old chief, has just lost his eldest son. He blames Karma, a young up and coming leader, for his son's death and refuses to let Karma lead the annual yak caravan to the land of grain. It's that old man/young man rivalry thing. So Karma decides to challenge Tinle by leaving with the younger villagers and their yaks four days before the auspicious date set by the lamas. Tinle leads the rest of the caravan on the appointed date. Accompanying him are his grandson, Pasang, and his younger son, Norbou - a lama who has lived in a monastery since the age of 8 and knows nothing about leading yak caravans. They are accompanied by the old men of the village and their old yaks. Yes, even the yaks are old. There are bad trails, snow storms, fatigue, and blistered feet to battle before he catches up with Karma and the rest of the village.

Although billed as a Nepali film it's directed by Eric Valli, a French guy. The actors are Nepali, but the movie definitely has a European feel to it.

Although billed as an epic adventure film, it's really more like a yak music video.

That said, once I gave up on wanting to be grabbed by the plot I got very into the yaks. Yaks are beautiful. Yaks are amazing. This movie is about the yaks, not the people. And the yaks are fabulous.