My grandparents owned a home in rural southern Idaho just in the heart of cattle country. Their back fence bordered goats on one side and cows on the other. Every so often my cousins and I would wake to the sound of clanking bells and my grandmother's holler, "Bill, there's a cow loose in the yard!" followed by a masculine stern warning of "go on now cow," followed by some mooing. Our final morning in Yubeng Village I woke out of a deep slumber to similar clanking cow bells and had hopped to my feet before realizing my toes wouldn't be touching the familiar pink carpet of my grandparents home but instead would land on the ice cold warped wooden floors of a hostel in rural China. It was so cold in fact that I could see my own breath and there were ice crystals frozen to the window sill. I looked outside and saw a belled yak calmly grazing on frosted ferns and bushes. Above him, the foothills of Kawa Karpo's wife and crown were covered with a dusting of snow. The pigs and the chickens that had roamed freely the day before were all cuddled together in the space below the main house providing warmth to each other and to the people resting above. Winter had arrived in the valley, and with it, our departure from Yubeng Village.
My grandparents owned a home in rural southern Idaho just in the heart of cattle country. Their back fence bordered goats on one side and cows on the other. Every so often my cousins and I would wake to the sound of clanking bells and my grandmother's holler, "Bill, there's a cow loose in the yard!" followed by a masculine stern warning of "go on now cow," followed by some mooing. Our final morning in Yubeng Village I woke out of a deep slumber to similar clanking cow bells and had hopped to my feet before realizing my toes wouldn't be touching the familiar pink carpet of my grandparents home but instead would land on the ice cold warped wooden floors of a hostel in rural China. It was so cold in fact that I could see my own breath and there were ice crystals frozen to the window sill. I looked outside and saw a belled yak calmly grazing on frosted ferns and bushes. Above him, the foothills of Kawa Karpo's wife and crown were covered with a dusting of snow. The pigs and the chickens that had roamed freely the day before were all cuddled together in the space below the main house providing warmth to each other and to the people resting above. Winter had arrived in the valley, and with it, our departure from Yubeng Village. 
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