Brokpa
Minaro Brokskat | |
---|---|
Religion | |
Predominantly: Buddhism; Minority: Islam | |
Related ethnic groups | |
Other Indo-Aryan peoples |
The Brokpa (
Name
According to the
Over time, the term "Brokpa" fell out of use in
They use the endonym Minaro.Identity and geographic distribution
The Brokpa speak an Indo-Aryan language called Brokskat, which is a variety of the Shina language currently spoken in the Gilgit region.[9] (During the British Raj, it became common to refer to the people of the Gilgit region as "Dards" using ancient nomenclature. The Brokpa are thus "Dards" living in the midst of Tibetic Ladakhi and Balti people.)[b] While the two languages share similar phonological developments, Brokskat converged with Purgi to the extent of being mutually intelligible at the present time.[11][9][12]
The Brokpa might have expanded from the Gilgit region upstream along the Indus valley until reaching their current habitat, viz., the lower Indus valley of Ladakh next to the border with Baltistan.[13] The time frame of this expansion or dispersion is uncertain, but their chiefs are believed to have ruled at Khalatse until the 12th century, where the remnants of their forts can still be found. Their rule over this region ended during the reign of the Ladakhi kings Lhachen Utpala and his successor Lhachen Naglug.[14]
Another group of Brokpa appear to have settled in the
Scholar Rohit Vohra states that the Brokpa can be found all along the Indus Valley from Leh, but Achina-Thang is the first wholly Brokpa village, however they have adopted Ladakhi culture a long ago.[16] Their major villages are, in addition to Dah and Hanu, Garkon, Darchik, and Batalik. A few of them live in the villages of Silmo (34°37′37″N 76°19′12″E / 34.627°N 76.320°E) and Lalung (34°35′28″N 76°17′53″E / 34.591°N 76.298°E) en route to Kargil.[16] In the 17th century, the stream and village of Gurugurdo (34°39′40″N 76°19′59″E / 34.661°N 76.333°E) was set as the border between Baltistan and Ladakh.[17][18] To the north of here, there are Muslim Brokpa villages, such as Chulichan, Ganokh, and possibly Marol.[16][17] Ganokh and Marol are at present in Pakistan-administered Gilgit-Baltistan.
The number of Brokstat speakers was estimated as 3,000 people in 1996.[11]
Festivals
Brokpa celebrate Bono-na festival which is a festival of thank giving to deities for good crops and prosperity.[19]
Diet
The traditional Brogpa diet is based on locally grown foods such as barley and hardy wheat prepared most often as tsampa/sattu (roasted flour). It takes in different ways.[clarification needed] Other important foods include potatoes, radishes, turnips, and Gur-Gur Cha, a brewed tea made of black tea, butter and salt.
Dairy and poultry sources are not eaten because of religious taboos. Brogpa eat three meals a day: Choalu Unis (breakfast), Beali (lunch) and Rata Unis (dinner). Brogpa vary with respect to the amount of meat (mainly mutton) that they eat. A household's economic position decides the consumption of meat. It is only during festivals and rituals that all have greater access to mutton.[20]
Economy and employment
The Brogpa economy has shifted from agropastoralism to wage labour, and the division of labour that relied on stratifications of age and gender is now obsolete. For many years, brokpa predominantly engaged in high-altitude grazing (3000 to 4500 meter) and lowland agriculture. The Brogpa transition to private property, monogamy, nuclear families, formal education, wage labour, and their incorporation into a highly militarised economy of soldiering and portering illuminates the complex workings of modernity in Ladakh.[21]
See also
- Shina people
- Nuristani people
- Kalash people
- Hunza people
- Gurjar people
Notes
- ^ Many pastoral groups on the Tibetan plateau and the surrounding Himalayan regions have been given the name Brogpa/Drokpa. They are not necessarily related to each other.
- ^ In current parlance, the term "Dards" is used for the speakers of Dardic languages. The Brokpa are "Dards" on this account as well.[10]
References
- ^ Indian Antiquary. Popular Prakashan. 1905. p. 93.
Minaro ,as they call themselves
- ^ a b Ethnologue, 15th Edition, SIL International, 2005 – via archive.org
- ^ Cardona & Jain, Indo-Aryan Languages (2007), p. 889.
- ^ Vohra, Ethnographic Notes on the Buddhist Dards (1982).
- ^ Gazetteer of Kashmir and Ladak (1890), p. 238.
- ^ Drew, The Jummoo and Kashmir Territories (1875), p. 433.
- ^ Radloff, The Dialects of Shina (1992), note 8.
- ^ "Brokskat". Ethnologue. Retrieved 23 February 2020.
- ^ a b Radloff, The Dialects of Shina (1992), p. 99.
- ^ Kogan, On possible Dardic and Burushaski influence (2019), p. 263, footnote 1.
- ^ a b Cardona & Jain, Indo-Aryan Languages (2007), p. 984.
- ISSN 1600-0439.
- ^ Jina, Ladakh (1996), p. 93.
- ^ Vohra, Ethnographic Notes on the Buddhist Dards (1982), p. 70.
- JSTOR 23658122
- ^ a b c Vohra, Ethnographic Notes on the Buddhist Dards (1982), p. 72.
- ^ a b Bhasin, Tribals of Ladakh (2004), pp. 137–138.
- ^ Vohra, Ethnographic Notes on the Buddhist Dards (1982), p. 76.
- ^ "5-day Bonona festival of Brokpas concludes". dailyexcelsior. 12 October 2016. Retrieved 11 January 2023.
- ^ "Bhasin, Veena: Social Change, Religion and Medicine among Brokpas of Ladakh, Ethno-Med., 2(2): 77-102 (2008)" (PDF).
- ISBN 9781138948426.
Bibliography
- Gazetteer of Kashmir and Ladak, Calcutta: Superintendent of Government Printing, 1890 – via archive.org[dead link]
- Bhasin, Veena (2004). "Tribals of Ladakh: Ecology and Health". In Aloke Kumar Kalla; P. C. Joshi (eds.). Tribal Health and Medicines. Concept Publishing Company. pp. 131–. OCLC 1046388551.
- Cardona, George; Jain, Danesh (2007). The Indo-Aryan Languages. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-135-79711-9.
- Drew, Frederic (1875), The Jummoo and Kashmir Territories: A Geographical Account, E. Stanford – via archive.org
- Jina, Prem Singh (1996), Ladakh: The Land and the People, Indus Publishing, ISBN 978-81-7387-057-6
- Kogan, Anton (2019), "On possible Dardic and Burushaski influence on some Northwestern Tibetan dialects", Journal of Language Relationship, 17 (4): 263–284, S2CID 215770214
- Radloff, Carla F. (1992), "The Dialects of Shina" (PDF), in Peter C. Backstrom; Carla F. Radloff (eds.), Languages of Northern Areas, Sociolinguistic Survey of Northern Pakistan, vol. 2, National Institute of Pakistan Studies, Quaid-i-Azam University & Summer Institute of Linguistics, pp. 89–203, ISBN 969-8023-12-7
- Schmidt, Ruth Laila (2004), "A grammatical comparison of Shina dialects", in Anju Saxena (ed.), Himalayan Languages: Past and Present, Walter de Gruyter, pp. 33–, ISBN 978-3-11-017841-8
- Vohra, Rohit (1982), "Ethnographic Notes on the Buddhist Dards of Ladakh: The Brog-Pā", Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, 107 (1): 69–94, JSTOR 25841799
External links
- The Far East in Words and Pictures
- "India, Brokpa People". Atlas Of Humanity. Retrieved 6 March 2022.
- "From Nomadic Tribesmen to Nazi Icons: Who Were the Aryans?". heritage-key.com. Archived from the original on 7 August 2010.[dead link]