Unshackle Our Yaks, Unshackle Our Hearts

Oṋm mahákálayam maháviirya̭ḿ

Shiva váhanaḿ uttamam;

Gańanámatvá prathama vande

Nandishvaram mahábalam,

[Oṋm Great Lord of Time, unto the Lord of the heroes Lord Shiva and you His best beloved mount. Among all the followers of Lord Shiva, I salute you first, O Nandi of the Lord who is Almighty.

For thousands of years, devotees of Lord Shiva — from the Shivalik ranges of Himachal Pradesh to Mount Kailasha in Tibet — have saluted Nandi, the famous yak who carried Shiva across the roof of the world, even up to the Alps in Europe.

​Many hymns are still sung in honour of Nandi, yet yaks today are forgotten and mistreated. With modernisation spreading to even the most remote Himalayan villages, a culture of disrespect has emerged. Across Tibet, East Turkestan, Yunnan, China, Nepal, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bhutan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia, yaks are used and abused for labour and tourism.

​Yaks are naturally suited to cold, high altitudes (10,000–18,000 feet). In tourist destinations they are forced to work at lower, warmer altitudes, leading to severe heat stress and often sudden death within a year. They carry heavy loads of luggage, equipment, and tourists for long hours with little food, water, or rest.

​Cruel practices such as castration and nose piercing continue without anaesthesia, overcrowding during winter. Once the animals become weak or injured they are sent to be slaughtered. The slaughterhouses in hilly areas are low standard and hence more cruel to be the animals. Some herders even kill yaks by strangulation to collect maximum blood for sausage-making — an extremely torturous practice.

​Climate change is exacerbating welfare issues like heat stress and reduced pasture availability, which can lead to malnutrition and also leads to disease transmission if animals are forced into overcrowded conditions. The tourism industry prioritizes profits and “unique experiences” while ignoring cruelty and overlooking the laws meant to protect these faithful animals.

Shrii Shrii Anandamurti revealed the true history of Shiva:

“Lord Sadáshiva, the central figure of universal humanity, appeared around 7500 years ago. It is not that He sat in just one particular place and created ideational waves; riding on his yak, He travelled all over the world and propagated the keynote of humanism. Though the keynote of this humanism has Parama Puruśa as its goal, this movement towards Parama Puruśa is multi-staged, is prolonged in manifold directions, and experiences myriad flows of sweetness, before it reaches its single goal.” 

To honour Lord Shiva, we must honour His companion. Every living being has the right to roam freely and live in dignity. No animal should live in chains or in small prisons like the yakWhen our meditation and activism are dedicated to protecting all beings — including Shiva’s beloved yaks — our hearts will be filled with divine sweetness. Then, like true devotees, we will sing, dance, and fight against greed, superstition, discrimination, and cruelty.