Yak polo (or sarlagan polo) is a Mongolian variant of the sport polo. It is played on yaks instead of on horseback.

Originally invented in the early 2000s as a tourist attraction, the sport is as of 2006 reported to have attracted a modest following in Mongolia. The Mongolian Association of Sarlagan Polo claims that the sport is booming, with four games a week being played in the summer of 2006. In Pakistan, Yak polo is played in the Himalayas and Hindukush at Boroghil in District Chitral. The event is held in July every year and is sponsored by the Sarhad Tourism Corporation, Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.

The yak, Bos grunniens or Bos mutus, is a long-haired bovine found throughout the Himalayan region of south Central Asia, the Tibetan Plateau and as far north as Mongolia and Russia. In addition to a large domestic population, there is a small, vulnerable wild yak population. In the 1990s, a concerted effort was undertaken to help save the wild yak population.

The English word "yak" derives from the Tibetan (Tibetan: གཡག་, Wylie: g.yag), or gyag – in Tibetan this refers only to the male of the species, the female being called a dri or nak. In English, as in most other languages which have borrowed the word, "yak" is usually used for both sexes.

Yaks belong to the genus Bos, and are therefore related to cattle (Bos primigenius taurus, Bos primigenius indicus). Mitochondrial DNA analyses to determine the evolutionary history of yaks have been somewhat ambiguous.

The yak may have diverged from cattle at any point between one and five million years ago, and there is some suggestion that it may be more closely related to bison than to the other members of its designated genus. Apparent close fossil relatives of the yak, such as Bos baikalensis, have been found in eastern Russia, suggesting a possible route by which yak-like ancestors of the modern American bison could have entered the Americas.

Polo (Persian: چوگان‎, chowgan) is a team sport played on horseback in which the objective is to score goals against an opposing team. Sometimes called, "The Sport of Kings", it was started by Persians and was popular till 1979 which declined sharply due to invasion of Arabic Muslims in Iran. Players score by driving a small white plastic or wooden ball into the opposing team's goal using a long-handled mallet. The traditional sport of polo is played at speed on a large grass field up to 300 yards long by 160 yards wide, and each polo team consists of four riders and their mounts. Field polo is played with a solid plastic ball, which has replaced the wooden ball in much of the sport. In arena polo, only three players are required per team and the game usually involves more maneuvering and shorter plays at lower speeds due to space limitations of the arena. Arena polo is played with a small air-filled ball, similar to a small soccer ball. The modern game lasts roughly two hours and is divided into periods called chukkers. Polo is played professionally in 16 countries. It was formerly, but is not currently, an Olympic sport.