About The Rocking Yak

From the founder:

Many have asked me why I do what I do? What brought me to this place? What’s a man like me doing in a wool project?  In order to answer these questions, I need to go back ten years ago.  I was traveling in South Western China when I fell in love with the beautiful array of culture I saw present within the many minority groups that I came across. Their lives were so completely different from what I experienced in the west. With the warm smiles I was greeted with, it was hard not to fall in love with this place and the people who live here.

I went to a place that is now Shangri La (prior it was called Zhong Dian). Shangri La is a Tibetan Autonomous Region in the northern part of the Yunnan province of China, in the foothills of the Himalayas.  Being a mountain man from Alaska, this quickly became my favorite place.

I moved into the biggest city in the Yunnan province of China named Kunming and started studying the Chinese language. During my four years of studies, the passion for Shangri La continued in me.  In 2008 I moved there and started looking for business opportunities. I spent a lot of time in the villages and started to realize that many of the people thirty years and older have never been to school.  If they did get the chance to go, it was only until the third or fourth grade. I started inquiring about the younger kids and most of them now are able to attend school until the eighth grade. Beyond that, families are required to pay for the education their children receive. Most of the rural families don’t have the resources to allow their children to continue in their education, so the kids stay at home to help in the fields and with rearing yaks.

There are a lot of obstacles trying to bring employment to people living in remote areas. The Chinese government has been doing an incredible job of improving roads; building more schools, offering clean water projects, subsidized health insurance and even subsidizing home improvement costs. Unfortunately, these rural villages are just too far out to bring any real sustainable employment, so farming and yak rearing are the only options.

Out of these needs came the “The Rocking Yak”.  To be honest, it was a bit of a no brainer. There are a lot of yaks standing around the villages and throughout the winter months, ladies too, are standing around waiting to plant their next crop.

The Rocking Yak is able to bring much needed income to Tibetan families residing in impoverished communities within rural China. We aim to empower these families in their choice to live a more traditional lifestyle, and are bringing economic value to the traditional skills of rearing yak and spinning wool.  We are helping families to gain long-term employment and a greater sustainable income, while instilling self worth and pride in the celebration of their unique culture. The Rocking Yak is working with these families to produce quality hand spun yarn as well as, handmade artisan products for foreign and local markets.  In doing this, The Rocking Yak is bringing to the western market a new luxury fiber, yak down