"Mark Lanmon here. Whoever copied this ancient accout of grafting below is
being a help to me. I am helping a remote people group near Tibet to
learn grafting. They will not have grafting tape (or any tape) available
to them so this home made mixture and technique is more likely something
they can use. If anyone else has some advise on non-store-bought
supplies, I would be very interested. Thanks, Mark."
Mark, having been in Tibet, I would be surprised if, using the recipe
provided by Lon, you could not use Yak butter to replace tallow. I know
that they use it as a wax to impregnate wooden floors. I have seen
containers of it in Buddhist Temples where it is used as lighting fuel which
appeared to contain hundreds of pounds. You are probably reviving a
practice (grafting) in Tibet which has been lost over the centuries. I know
that there is evidence that the Chinese practiced grafting previous to our
recognized "civilization" having the capability of recording such things in
books. Horticultural practices were recorded on slabs of bamboo by the
ancient Chinese but it will probably be another generation before we will
learn much about them. A small group of interested people are slowly
translating them into modern Chinese but, as far as I know, there are no
plans to publish their findings in any other language. There was a rumor
going around that the Chinese Government was funding a move to re-discover
the history of their people's past in many areas.
Doc Lisenby