The Waiting buffalo

Every time we wait for someone to arrive and are kept waiting, we always say “Nga chey mahey jodo marey” literally means “we are becoming the buffalo”. The saying is related to a story about a buffalo and a Yak. The story goes like this...

Once, there was a time when the buffalo had a long luxurious hair. The yak was almost bare of its hair and always fought very hard to stay warm in the cold weather it was exposed to. One day, it so happened that the two animals met and talked about their dreams. The buffalo expressed his desire to taste the salt from Lhasa while the yak shared his dream to own thick lush hair to keep him warm in the high mountains where he lived. As they were talking, they realized that they could help each other and the buffalo decided to give away his think hair in exchange to a sack of Lhasa salt since he didn’t need his hair in the hot place where he lived.

The yak couldn’t believe his good luck and promised to be back with a sack of Lhasa salt in a month and bounced off with happiness.  He went higher into the mountains and forgot his promised made to the buffalo. A month passed but there was no sign of the yak or the salt but the buffalo patiently waited for his salt. The months changed into years but the buffalo still waited watching patiently towards the mountain for his salt and it is said that the buffalo still looks up to the mountains even today to see whether the yak is on its way with the salt.