The obvious impact of this transition is changes to the Bokpa way of life, with former yak herders making ends meet as petty traders, day-wage laborers on the many mountainous roads in need of regular maintenance, or subsistence farmers, who mostly grow vegetables or grains for their own consumption but sell any surplus in local markets. But the more insidious impact has been a significant shift in gender dynamics, resulting in Brokpa women’s loss of power and influence. Forced to integrate other communities in order to survive, Bokpa women are losing the relative equality they enjoyed in their’s.

Aside from the loss of decision-making power, Brokpa women, like Lhamo, who have settled among the Ungpa have also lost most of their economic independence and the power they traditionally wielded through a marriage institution known as khor dekpa.