Pastoralism has served as a key livelihood strategy of people living in the high mountains and plays a vital role in caring for animals, alleviating poverty, providing food security, and maintaining fertility of soil by providing manure from migratory livestock. The major pastoral communities of Himalayan countries, namely, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Pakistan, and China, rear small ruminants and other domestic animals. Some of the major communities of the Indian Himalayan regions practicing transhumance are Bakarwal and Gujjar in Jammu and Kashmir, Changpa in Ladakh, Gaddi, Kinnaura, and Kanet in Himachal Pradesh, Bhotiya in Uttarakhand, Bhutia in Sikkim, and Monpa in Arunachal Pradesh. In Nepal, a number of ethnic groups practicing pastoralism are Thakuri, Sherpa, Rai, Limbu, Tamang, Kirats, Gurung, Thakali, Chettri, and Magar. The communities in the Himalayan region of Gilgit-Baltistan of Pakistan practicing pastoralism include Balti, Gujjar, Wakhi, Uygur, Shina, Yashkun, Kirghiz, and Bakkarwal. On the basis of migration types, the major pastoral groups in the Himalayan region have been broadly classified into three categories, viz., nomadic pastoralism, semi-nomadic pastoralism, and transhumant herders. The nomads differ depending upon the type of animals they raise. For instance, Gujjars raise buffaloes, cattle, and sheep, whereas Bakarwals and Gaddis generally raise sheep and goats. Changpa nomads raise yaks, sheep, goats, and horses. The Changthangi (Pashmina) and Chegu goats are famous world over for fine warm wool fiber. Bhutias of Sikkim raise sheep, goats, yaks, cattle, dzow (cross of yak and cattle), and horses. Pastoral groups of the Himalayan region of Gilgit-Baltistan of Pakistan raise sheep and goats besides other livestock species and nomadic pastoralists of Tibet raise sheep, goats, yaks, yak–cattle hybrids, and horses. Seasonal migration by pastoralists to the alpine pastures and back to the plains annually is a hard task involving long walking hours, accidents, attacks by wild animals, and other hazards. In general, uphill ascending and descending migratory routes, places of enroute stay, destination of alpine pastures, and time of departure and arrival in alpine pastures are almost fixed and identical by all categories of herders. Weather or climate change is the major factor which governs the departure during ascending and descending journeys. Other distinctive features of the patterns of migration by different communities have been described. In India while ascending, the Bakarwals and Gujjars pass through seven major tribal migratory routes and majority of the undertaken routes pass through different regions of Pir Panjal range. Their migration has been categorized as intra-district, inter-district, inter-province, and inter-state migration. Gaddis of Himachal Pradesh rear sheep and goats by following vertical and horizontal transhumance pattern. Kinners migrate to higher reaches of Kinnaur hills of Himachal Pradesh and the Kumaun and Garhwal hills of Uttarakhand. During the winter season, they move with their animals to the plains of Kangra and Sirmaur districts of Himachal Pradesh. Bhotiyas of Uttarakhand occupy the entire alpine regions of western Himalayas in the state. The Changpa nomads have fixed routes and keep sheep and goats together and restrict grazing of yaks and horses to separate pastures. The nomadic pastoralists of Tibet/China have several distinctive features. The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP) has the largest area of continuous grazing grassland in the world and maintains approximately 20 million yaks and 50 million Tibetan sheep. The Tibetan sheep grazes on natural pastures with no additional feeding and is considered as a special breed that has well adapted to alpine harsh environments including severe cold, low oxygen content of the air in high altitude and high solar radiation. The low temperature- and hypoxia-resistant Tibetan sheep are the main source of earnings for pastoral nomads, providing them with valuable resources including milk, meat, and fur and wool clothing, and dung as fertilizer and fuel. Nomads move with their animals to different grasslands at different seasons of the year and are in search of suitable forages. In Nepal, pastoral communities raise sheep, goats, yaks, and cattle under the transhumant production system. The downward journey commences as temperature starts to fall and their animals migrate through naked hills towards the land covered by forest and vines. The mobile pastoral herds supply manure to the uncultivated agricultural fields, and this practice of manuring is quite common in Nepal. During the winter season, Nepal pastoralists use castrated sheep and goats as pack animals. In Bhutan, similar to other Himalayan countries, pastoralism is a vital component of the agricultural farming system. Transhumant agro-pastoralism (TAP) involves vertical transhumance and a so-called alpine yak system. In this system, when yaks move down to temperate pastures, cattle move further south to subtropical pastures and then migrate upward to temperate pastures as yaks migrate back to alpine pastures in summer season. Another distinctive feature of the traditional transhumant production system of Bhutan is what is called “Tsamdro resource-sharing system” in which multiple households gain grazing access to the same tsamdro (rangeland) during different seasons. The current chapter mainly focuses on the principal nomadic Himalayan communities, the way they have been classified, the patterns of their migration in major Himalayan countries including India, Nepal, Bhutan, and China.