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Brokpa tribe in the Ladakh (INDIA)
In the Kargil district at the border of Pakistan, situated midway between Srinagar and Leh (Ladakh’s capital) is the most colourful, peaceful and pleasant tribe in the world; The Brokpas or “animal herders” as the word denotes.
Our journey lasted about 1.5 days from Leh to where the Brokpas lived. When we got there we were welcomed by smiling faces and warm conversation as if though we were one of the members of their family. The Brokpas have been proved to be members of the Aryan race and against all the hardships (fields of death just beside the border, and nature lost) they stubbornly maintain their peaceful lives, growing poppies in their hats as if to passively protest the violence in the world.
To our surprise, the Brokpa women receive more deference and are more powerful than men due to the Brokpa legend. According to the legend in 640 BC the King Songsten Gombo orders his people to destroy the top of the hill where the Brokpa live because it hinders the sunlight. For days and years the people helplessly try to destroy the top of the hill but cannot. Just when the Brokpa people are lost in desperateness, a young woman called Jhomo comes by kils the tyrant king and scares the local leader out to Bhutan. That is why the Brokpa women are considered to be so valuable. Brokpa women represent their families and have a word in the important decisions concerning the community whilst the men spend their days working cropping the land and grazing the animals.
The Budhist Brokpas most interesting characteristic is the hats the women wear with flowers not placed but actually grown in them. They call these hats “Ko” and spend a large amount of time adorning them. The women wear a garment that resembles a Mexican poncho and a red jacket which, in the lower half, is decorated with woven patterns or with animal figures. The clothing of the men consists of leather gaiters, wool pants and jacket, as well as a sleeveless fur vest, which is worn over the jacket and whose fur can be turned to the outside when raining.
Very much impressed by their apparel, we wanted
to look like a flower woman of Brokpa, so thanks to a Brokpa woman,
we had our hair plaided. However, the Brokpa woman had great difficulty
plaiding our hair because our hair was nothing compared to their long
healthy plaidable hair. To show our appreciation for their hospitality,
we offered them the “evil eye” stone (protects you from
evil looks in Turkish culture).
We discovered that the Brokpa still used the “Exchange”
method in their commercial activities and that the more the number of
children in a family the more prestigious you are considered due to
the fact that they will be helpful in daily labours such as grazing
and working on the land. Family planning is just not an issue for them.
The main source of income of the Brokpa is sheep and yak breeding. From the wool of these working animals the Brokpa women produce artful weavings.
When night fell, The Brokpas organized a Brokpa party for us with lots of dancing and rejoicing. We joined in and had the most happiest and pleasant time of our life.
From a distance it seemed as if the Brokpas were the genuine “Flower Children” of our century, dancing with their flower hats, a community practicing genuine “feminism”, and a group of people from a lost world screaming out in their own way “ You still have a chance to convert this haggard world into a heaven of flowers”……
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