Bhutan is a small Himalayan Monarchy populated with 672,425 inhabitants and located between the subtropical Indian plains and the Tibetan plateau. The yak herders (less than 5% of the population) occupy the Northern belt of the country, alpine region ranging between 2,500 and 6,000m. Yaks ensure their livelihoods with the provision of manure, draught power, meat, hair and dairy products and the possibility to barter the surplus with grains, salt, tools or clothes. Until the 50's Bhutan was still a feudal state isolated from the rest of the world. An original approach to development was put in place to modernise the economy, prioritizing the growth national happiness over Growth Domestic Product. This communication questions the capacity of this development strategy to prevent the marginalisation of yak herding taking place elsewhere in the world. It highlights the footing of the traditional yak farming systems, presents the driving forces of modernisation and analyses as a transfer of complexity the resulting pressures on the yak herding resources and social linkages. It appears that the Bhutanese middle path for development may have prolonged the existence of the yak farming system. Yet it failed so far to create a stable environment able to support the transformation of the herders' skills and organisations and to stabilise their income. Just as it benefited some mountainous areas in Europe, it seems worth investigating the opportunity to add value and to restore the image of the herding activity through a work on the quality of the yak products.