FEEDER BAGS: Nomad horses mostly eat grass, but are also fed barely on special occasions (or in the case of special horses). This bag is used to keep the horse in one place by giving him his favorite food. Woven from yak-hair and cotton yarn, and sometimes made from old basketballs, used by others as a satchel.
LHAGANG SEWING KITS:(left) Dyed yak-leather, with (left section) felt for storing needles in and (right section) pouch for buttons. Nomad men hang these off of their belts for convenience and style.
LHAGANG SALT BAGS: (right) Made of felt or cloth with embroidery, these bags are hung from the belts of nomad women and filled with salt. This way, a woman is prepared at all times to attract a yak, for milking, shearing, or loading purposes. Yak-attracting also requires a special call which sounds something like a hoarse duck.
SLINGSHOTS: (left) Ropes made of yak hair, partially hand-dyed, and leather (white), wool felt bottom piece. Used to scare straying yaks so that they rejoin the herd.
ZACHIKA FLINT: (right) A pair of leather sheaths which holds a flint in one side and a kind of dried fungus useful in starting fires in the second. The availability of matches is recent (probably within the last 15 years), and before that this was the fire starter. It was hung in the tent. Red coals were carefully protected overnight and carried on horseback during seasonal migrations, and fires were usually re-started by blowing on the coal, so this flint was only for rare use.
LHAGANG WOODEN BUCKETS: (left) Used for milk collection and for cheese making, these buckets are handmade by first hollowing out a short log,and then soaking branches in water to make them pliable. Then the branches were curved around the bucket to strengthen the sides. Currently, metal buckets are easily available and often used for milking, but these wooden buckets are the standard for use in aging willow cheese.