Transhumance
The seasonal moving of herds between lowland and mountain pastures, and the cheese culture that follows it.
Also: seasonal migration, yaylak, alpage drive
Transhumance is the twice-yearly journey of herders and their animals between winter grazing in the valleys and summer pastures in the mountains. Much of the world's mountain cheese was born of it: milk on the high pasture had to become a long-keeping cheese, so Alpine wheels, Pyrenean sheep cheeses, Polish oscypek, Balkan sirene and kashkaval, Turkish tulum, Central Asian qurut, Mongolian aaruul and Himalayan churpi all belong to these journeys. In India the Gaddi, Bakarwal and Gujjar herders of the Himalaya still move with the seasons. UNESCO lists transhumance as intangible cultural heritage, and the processions up and down the mountains remain festivals.