Yaylish

Yaylish is a term used in Turkic-speaking and neighboring pastoral communities to denote the practice of using summer highland pastures for grazing. The term and its cognates appear in ethnographic literature to describe a mode of transhumant pastoralism in which herders move seasonally between lower winter villages and higher-elevation summer pastures.

Typically, families shear and graze flocks of sheep and goats, and sometimes cattle or horses, during the warm months. Dwellings may include portable tents or yurts, with permanent settlements used in winter months. Access to water and forage guides the routes and timing.

Yaylish supports dairy products, cheese, wool, and meat markets; it also reinforces cultural practices such as seasonal rituals and festive markets. Land use is often organized through customary arrangements that regulate pasture access and grazing rights.

Although most associated with the Anatolian and Caucasian regions, yaylish concepts occur across Central Asia. The practice has declined in many areas due to sedentarization, agricultural intensification, and modernization, though it persists in some communities and is preserved in folklore and regional identities.

See also: transhumance, yayla, pastoralism.