Yaks are tethered at night near the campsite to protect them and to have the cows ready for milking in the morning. (AJ Heath)

Portrait and social documentary photographer AJ Heath, 37, spent 12 days living with semi-nomadic yak herders in the Brokpa villages of Bhutan in June 2015. He took the trip to photograph the way of life of these herders in the remote villages of Merak and Sakten.

Located between the glacial valleys of the Greater Himalayas, the only way to visit these remote villages is by a grueling multi-day trek. The nearest road currently ends a couple hours hike away. “I spent seven days in Merak, [then] two days hiking to the next village and then three days in Sakten,” Heath told weather.com. “I’ve been very lucky and photographed stories all over the world, but I’m not sure I’ve been anywhere that felt so remote.”

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The Brokpa villages have remained largely isolated from the currents of globalization that have begun to affect Bhutan since it began opening up the country to foreign tourists in the 1970s. The village’s inhabitants still rely on their yak herds for survival, with the animals providing food, clothing, and warmth, as they do not grow crops because of the high altitudeof the villages' locations.

“I wanted to photograph this story because the first road to the Brokpa Villages is about to be complete and I wanted to document their lives before they changed forever,” said Heath.

Apart from the introduction of electricity in 2012 and community-shared taps of running water, little has changed in these villages for centuries. And during the summer months, the Brokpa yak herders live a semi-nomadic life searching for fresh pastureland for their herds high in the Himalayan mountains.

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Life for the villagers can also be difficult because of unpredictable weather and monsoons.Heath lived with the herders during the summer. “I can’t imagine what it must have been like in the winter months. I was there in June, just before monsoon season, and it was freezing,” Heath told weather.com. “[I] came away with loads of flea and leech bites.”

He said that the weather also impacted his photography. “For most of the year, the light is incredibly harsh during the day [until about] 3:00 p.m. and that restricted the outdoor photography I could do. It left the photos looking really washed out and there was a huge contrast from the highlights to the shadows,” Heath explained. “Bhutan has beautiful light in the late afternoon, but due to the topography, the sun goes down quite early.”

To see more of AJ Heath’s photography, visit his website or follow him on Instagram.

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Straddling the border betweent the Yadong county of Tibet and the Paro district of Bhutan, Mount Jomolhari stands around 7,350 meters (24,114 feet) tall. Ascended only six times, restrictions imposed by the Bhutanese government forbid climbers on the mountain. (Ed Jones/AFP/Getty Images)