Bashan
巴山牛
(most common name)

(local/other name):
• Miaoya
• Xizhen
• Xuanhan

The Bashan consists of cattle of mixed zebu and taurine descent.

The name ‘Bashan’ is the singular name suggested in the 1980s for the following indigenous working cattle breeds:
• Chiya
• Lingnan
• Miaoya (= Yunba)
• Pingli
• Qinba
• Xizhen
• Xuanhan (plus its subpopulation of Tongjiang — although the Tongjiang is now reported as meriting a separate identity)

These cattle were bred over a wide area of southern Shaanxi (several counties), western Hubei province (Shiyan City) and eastern Sichuan province (counties of Dachuan and Xuanhan) — supposedly since 960–1280 AD — a ceramic ox dating from that time clearly shows the same morphology of a well-developed hump and dewlap in the males.

This page was last updated on: 2023-05-14

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