Waiting buffalo; the other side of the story.

I know that my ancestor had borrowed our thick fur from the buffalo when he went on a mission to get salt from Lhasa. Everyone thinks that he deceived his friend but not everyone knows the real story about what happened to him. I heard the story from my grandfather while grazing in the cold mountains of the Bhutan-Tibet border. He said that our great, great, great grandfather came to Lhasa on a quest to find salt for his friend.

The journey that he calculated took him more than a month to reach the destination. He had to cross many hills and the leech feasted jungles before he came close to the snow capped mountains of the Himalayas. Crossing thick forests and climbing dangerous cliffs and mountains drained his energy but he kept moving since he had given his word to his friend.

When he finally reached his destination, he got hold of a sack of salt and was set on his return journey when he met a man who befriended him. My ancestor was very happy to have a company and they travelled for many days together. He told the man about the purpose of his journey and how his friend awaited his arrival in the southern valley. One evening as the sun set on the horizon, they crossed the Tibetan border and reached a hamlet where they decided to take shelter for the night. The man went inside a hut and came out with a steaming bowl of soup. My great, great, great grandfather after having travelled for many miles welcomed the hospitality of the kind herdsman and gulped down the soup. He thanked the kind herdsman and went to sleep.

When he woke up the next morning, he found himself chained in a strange surrounding. There were many other animals who looked similar to him but with lesser fur. He tried hard to free himself but he could not. After keeping him chains for many months, he was finally set free but he found his memory blurring and couldn’t find his way back. His waiting friend seemed like a distant dream to him. Meanwhile he befriended a female in the herd and they bore many young calves who took after the father. The yak-herder was a happy man because he had the best herd in miles around. He sometimes dreamt about his past life but it became a distant mirage because he could not leave his family. He kept his past to himself because he felt ashamed of not fulfilling his promise.

Later when he knew that his end was near he called his children around and narrated the story about his journey from the plains to the mountains so that they could share it to their children about the origin of their thick hair and be grateful to the buffaloes in the plains for their generosity.

When my grandfather finished his narration, I couldn’t help feeling sorry for the two friends who lost track of each other due to the hands of destiny and landed in two extreme places. I asked my grandfather why someone from our herd hadn’t gone to the plains with a sack of salt that we owed to the buffaloes. He said that in the past someone from each generation had been trying to reach the buffalo but without any success and finally they had given up the hope of ever seeing them.

(Note: Since I had posted the story of the waiting buffalo, I couldn’t help pondering over what really might have happened to the yak. A true friend doesn’t deceive his friend out of sheer greed. So this is what I thought might have happened… :))