This film deals with the same people, if not the same individuals, as the book "Nomads of Western Tibet" by Melvyn C. Goldstein and Cynthia M. Beall, and the two complement each other nicely. The book is highly recommended for those interested in more about this culture, and the photography, if anything, is even more stunning.

The film concentrates on four men as they mount their yearly expedition with pack animals to collect salt at a distant lake or salt-pan. Formerly, many groups made the trip, and it was a mainstay of their economy. Now, due to competition from salt gatherers using trucks, it is barely profitable and fewer and fewer make the effort.

The focus is narrowly on the trip and preparation, and the process of gathering salt once they've arrived, all of which is surrounded by centuries of custom and ritual (there is even a secret language spoken only on the salt trip). But we learn much of the more general culture as it impinges during or before the expedition. It largely could have been filmed a hundred years ago, though occasional telephone/power lines or a passing truck intrude jarringly.

Except for a brief comment at the end, the story is told entirely in the images and (subtitled) sounds captured by the camera. The subjects do speak at length, for if not to the camera, and talk about much of what they are doing, but still some context (even a map) would have been appreciated. [An optional commentary track on the DVD would have been an excellent way to provide this.] Even if the filmmakers were not to add a Western, anthropological, viewpoint (for instance, pointing out that when the women are not allowed to go on the expedition, this might have something to do with their being indispensible to the running of the main encampment), the exigencies of filming don't let them provide all the context that would be there for a person on the spot. For instance, at one point there is a sequence where one of the saltmen ladles steaming brownish liquid into a small churn -- is this tea which he is mixing with butter in the Tibetan fashion, or is it yak milk, or ...? We aren't there, didn't observe what went before and after, and can't even smell the steam.

Nonetheless, this is a fascinating look at this one aspect of the nomads' life, even if it lacks something in context and narrative connectivity.

Obligatory complaint: the subtitles are quite hard to read against the light tones of the landscape, which seriously distracts from watching the film itself. Better technology for displaying them does exist.

They take a caravan of yak on its journey and reminisce about the past and how the price of salt has gone down and how they no longer meet as many salt men from other tribes. They go over some of their legends and mythology with the cameraman to give us a better understanding of there culture and teaching.

The documentary is set so the Tibetans tell their own story to the backdrop of Tibet and its mountains and harsh weather. The story is compelling and it leads you into lives of the salt men so much that you can appreciate their loss and concerns when one of the yaks falls ill.

The tradition of the salt men is a dying culture; one of the most poignant moments in the documentary is when the salt men arrive at the salt flats after spending weeks traveling t only to find someone harvesting salt and loading it into the back of a truck. The honking of the trucks horn sounds the death knell of the salt man culture.

I recommend this fascinating and compelling story.