We Need More Country Music About Yaks
The Swami got to thinkin' today. Ok, two points of note: Yes, The Swami often refers to himself in the third person. Well, get over it! If it's good enough for Bob Dole it is good enough for "The Swami." Besides, in a few years The Swami may need to be getting some medical advice from Bob Dole.
Secondly, yes, occasionally thinking does take place.
The Swami was wonderin' why thar t'aint more country songs 'bout yaks. It's a real wonderment.
Swami seems to remember just a few lines of a country song by Swami Bubba that I heard on the wood-burning Victrola as a child:
"The yaks they were a feedin, an' things were goin' fine
'til my turban got twisted 'round the windmills of my mind"
We all loved that song, but we had to play it very softly, lest the yaks stampede. Well, I'm sure that this has brought back a lot of memories for all of you too.
Just be sure to keep singing those words over and over and over, so that you too can pass them down for many generations to come.
posted by The Swami @ 9:07 AM
5 Comments:
This isn't about country songs, but a Google search for "songs about yaks" brought up this:
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For example, nomadic Tuvan yak herders have a complex, hierarchal system for classifying yaks according to (1) fur color, (2) body pattern, (3) head marking, and (4) individual traits. Mastering the system of yak-naming allows a herder to efficiently pick out or refer to a specific yak from a herd of hundres. It is a linguistic technology in that by learning a set of labels and their proper use, the speaker also acquires (with little or no effort) a hierarchal classification scheme.
I've also documented the use of special songs sung to yaks, horses, camels and other animals by Tuvan nomads in Mongolia. These songs are intended to pacify and modify the animals' behavior, and thus serve as a tool to manage natural resources. Domestication songs represent yet another type of indigenous knowledge embedded within a linguistic system.
You realize, I sincerely hope, that you have probably contributed to a panic somewhere deep within the research labs of Google.
They are no doubt beginning to work around the clock to figure out why there was search for songs about yaks.
Here's are excerpts from a Google search "The People of Bhutan"...
When the yak song was first sung, people wept.
It tells of Yak Legpai Lhadar Gawo’s youth- how handsome and magnificent he was- his home amid the lush high meadows and snow-capped mountains, his bonding with the yak herder. He was a happy yak. That was until his turn came to be slaughtered. “And I, the unfortunate Lhadar. It is I, Lhadar who feel sad. A heavy command of a powerful lord came. A man with a sword fastened at his waist. Came to take me, Lhadar.” (a CBS translation)
The composer of the song Ap Chuni Dorji, a Jop (yak herder) now 81 years old...He was much liked by those who knew him well because he improved their mood with his wit and humour.
HOW IRONIC!
Mary,
A COINCIDENCE, OR A CONSPIRACY?
The "yak song" comment is indeed a conincidence. As amazing as it may seem, whenever The Swami sings people also weep!
I googled "songs about yaks" and got this blog with references not only to someone who became a Yak Herder but also to the Yak Surfing Society.
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