The Cultural Politics of Yak Pageants and Slaughter Renunciation Among Tibetan Pastoralist Communities in China

Abstract The renunciation of the slaughter of yaks has become a significant cultural movement among Tibetan pastoralist communities in China, influenced by prominent figures in the Nyingma tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. This movement promotes a compassionate approach to livestock management, encouraging pastoralists to abstain from slaughtering yaks or selling them to slaughterhouses. While existing scholarship acknowledges the widespread adoption of this ethical practice, it often overlooks the ways in which pastoralists actively resist and reinterpret these norms. In this article, I propose the concept of performative agency to examine how pastoralists in the Pema Rito area of Qinghai province use an annual yak pageant as a platform to articulate their own desires and aspirations. I contend that the yak pageant functions as a crucial site of contestation, where pastoralists assert their agency by negotiating externally imposed ethical norms to advance their own vision of pastoralist life on their own terms.