Any traveller exploring the Ladakh highlands is certain to return throughout a set of individuals with distinguished apparel — berry flower headdresses, heavy steel jewelry and sheep pores and skin capes. These sightings are uncommon however not unusual. And in 2016, while on a mission within the Himalayas, photographer Trupal Pandya (35) from Gujarat had his first tryst with the Brokpa tribe. 

A eager curiosity in capturing ethnic communities throughout India and the world defines Pandya’s photographic prowess. Explaining this distinctive draw, he says, it’s due to a dynamic equilibrium that these tribes have with their atmosphere. “A peace of thoughts within the felt expertise of the second,” he provides, quoting American mystic, Terence McKenna. 

Pandya was intent on photographing the Brokpa tribe that had maintained a recluse’s life for the main a part of the century. With as few as 2,000 present members, the tribe is unfold throughout the villages of Dha, Gharkun, Dharchiks and Hanu. 

Mingling with society has at all times been a serious supply of rivalry for them. However, it appears the Kargil Struggle of 1999 modified issues. It was throughout this time that the tribe members started farming, buying and selling and extra, even lugging rations, ammunition, and so forth for the military. 

As a member of the Brokpa tribe Tsering Dorje recounted in an article to the Deccan Herald, “Even our girls carried hundreds. We had sore backs. Actually, a few of them even died doing so.” 

For a tribe that has managed to maintain a lot of their identification underneath wraps, it’s a revelation to know of the numerous customs, cultures and lores that bind them. 

However, Pandya shares, what actually drew him to seize them was the enjoyment and abundance they exuded. Whereas right this moment, rather more data is obtainable on the tribe, their origins are nonetheless disputed. 

“One concept in accordance with Brokpa folklore is that tons of of years in the past, three brothers, Galo, Melo, and Dulo, escaped in the hunt for a brand new land to quiet down,” shares Pandya. “The idea is that when these three brothers arrived in Ladakh, they emptied their sneakers stuffed with husk which multiplied into a great crop. These brothers, thought-about Aryans, settled there, and their descendants are known as the Brokpa,” Pandya explains. 

The Aryan concept can also be backed by the group’s options — tall stature, inexperienced eyes and excessive cheekbones. 

However, one other extra widespread concept means that this tribe was fashioned by the descendants of Alexander the Nice’s ‘Misplaced Military’ who stayed again within the area lengthy after the conqueror left in 326 BC. 

An perception into the coveted tribe

The Brokpa tribe has displayed a powerful intent on guarding their cultural and social beliefs from ‘contamination’. The ‘final of the Aryan supreme race’ stays away from kinship and marriage exterior the group to protect this ancestry. However this close-knit bond additionally means a way of brotherhood between members of the tribe. 

Pandya remembers admiring the love the tribe harbours for nature. “Their deep connection to the land is obvious in the best way they embellish themselves so fantastically with nature’s items – flowers, vivid colors, and an aesthetic deeply associated to the earth.” 

Pandya who has captured tribes the world over via his lens just like the tribes in Guatemala, Munda, the Huaorani folks of the Amazon and extra, finds a typical hyperlink that binds them – profound tales. 

“I used to be working with a Nationwide Geographic photographer Steve McCurry in 2012, and my first task from him was to deal with the processing and cataloguing of the proofs from his most up-to-date journey to the Omo Valley in Ethiopia,” he says recalling how his love for tribal topics started. 

“Whereas processing the photographs, the supposed affect took maintain of me. I turned deeply obsessed and fascinated by the folks and the tradition captured in these photographs, igniting a powerful dedication to see these communities firsthand.”

Right here’s a glimpse into his sequence chronicling the lifetime of the Brokpa group. 

“About 130 km (80 miles) northeast of Kargil, on the Line of Management on the India-Pakistan border, the place each international locations fought the conflict in the summertime of 1999, are the villages named Dha, Hanu, Darchik, and Garkon,” notes Pandya. “These villages are inhabited by a tribe that has lived in isolation for 1000’s of years; it’s the heartland of a tribe known as the Brokpas or the Drokpas.”

He provides that one of the vital hanging cultural symbols of the Brokpa tribe is the headgear. “Embellished with ornate steel jewelry, cash, and unique flowers, these headgears are worn to push back evil. It’s also believed that the flowers shield them from ailments.”

Residing at excessive altitudes comes with its personal set of challenges. And the tribe members guarantee they’re properly protected against the coolness. “Women and men are seen sporting coats lined with sheep fur,” says Pandya. He provides that the importance of the “elaborate headgear” known as ‘Tepi’ is that it’s believed to push back evil and maintain diseases at bay.

Throughout his time capturing the sequence, Pandya would usually observe the aged Brokpa girls chanting and praying along side a small grime street within the village. “As I approached one among them and inquired about what she was praying for, she replied, ‘I’m praying for a greater afterlife.’” he remembers. 

Pandya quickly learnt that Brokpas practised Buddhism and believed in a cycle of demise and rebirth known as samsara. “Via karma and eventual enlightenment, they hope to flee samsara and obtain nirvana, an finish to struggling. Additionally they imagine within the mystic Gods that they check with of their folks songs and tales.” 

As winter units in Ladakh, the group members transfer into the basement of the house which performs the position of a winter home. “This place is used to heat up and relaxation in the course of the hostile winter months.” 

Even while remoted from the remainder of the world, Pandya was amazed at how the tribe discovered its personal methods of adapting. 

The power to stay mysterious in a world the place every thing has change into so accessible is exclusive. However whereas on his mission, Pandya says that what the tribe lacks in written historical past they make up for within the type of songs sung down from many generations. “I visited one of many fascinating Brokpa households the place the basement has been transformed right into a museum to showcase essential Brokpa artefacts. The Brokpa photographed here’s a singer who believes in preserving their distinctive tradition by singing and operating the museum.”

Following the Indo-Pak conflict in 1999, street connectivity elevated between the skin world and the Brokpa villages. “The in any other case remoted tribe has now began adapting and opening as much as the world,” shares Pandya, who additionally famous their amicable nature whereas talking of their customs. 

For Pandya, capturing this sequence on a tribe shrouded in thriller, was transformational. “My images lets me intertwine each my artistic starvation and my cultural curiosities.”

Right here’s a take a look at the tribes the world over that Pandya has captured:

Edited by Padmashree Pande.