Erik Nilsson discovers milking yaks isn't easy. [Photo by Erik Nilsson and Tseringbum/China Daily]

"We'd slaughter a sheep in your honor if nobody had recently died in our family," the 49-year-old told me.

My friend Tseringbum, who'd organized our stay, explained this is a Tibetan custom.

I was grateful they wouldn't be making such a sacrifice. They'd already shown excessive hospitality.

My mind immediately steered toward the upside-down car crumpled at the bottom of a cliff near the house. I didn't ask out of respect.

Turns out, nobody died when the car whooshed over the edge.

One of Dub's seven children was driving and jumped out of the vehicle just before it plunged off the precipice, he explained, as we sawed meat off boiled yak ribs.

"People see the car and pray because they think the driver must have been killed," Dub says, laughing.

"I wouldn't have thought to jump. My son is smarter in that way."

More importantly, he's educated, the father explains.

"I'm so proud to have children in college," Dub says.

"We want them to study so they don't live like us. I went to school as a young child but never learned to read. I regret that."

He believes better incomes aren't education's primary goal.