Instead of being apple-cheeked blonds, they are brown-faced, black-haired, almond-eyed, and smell faintly of rancid yak butter. All 23 of the new villagers are Tibetan refugees who were flown in ...

Yet there is a serene calmness with which Pasang Tsering, 40, ties the legs of a female yak—dri or nag in Tibetan—with a rope made from yak wool and gets its calf to suckle and induce the milk.

For nomadic tribes, livestock and animals were the backbone of trade, and Tibetan Mastiffs held a value that far exceeded ...