Brokpa
Minaro | |
|---|---|
| File:Brokpa Aryan man with traditional headdress.jpg | |
| Total population | |
| 2858 (1981 census)[1] | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Garkon, Dha-Hanu, Sharchay, Chulichan-Batalik in Ladakh, India | |
| Languages | |
| Brokskat | |
| Religion | |
| Buddhism and Islam | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Other Indo-Aryan peoples |
The Minaro or Broqpa (Brokstat: مِنارُو/Mináró) is a small ethnic group mostly found in the Indian Union territory of Ladakh. They speak an Indo-Aryan language called Brokskat.[2]
They are mainly found in Dha, Hanu, Beama, Garkon, Darchiks, Batalik, Sharchay and Chulichan. Part of the community are also located in the Deosai plateau just across the Line of Control in the villages Ganoaks, Morol, Dananusar, and Chechethang in Baltistan. They are said to have originally come from Chilas and settled in the area generations ago. The Brokpa in the Leh district are mostly Vajrayana Buddhist while those in the Kargil district are mostly Muslim. [3][4]
Name
The endonym of the Brokpa people is "Minaro," which means "Aryan" in the Brokstat language.[3][5] 'Brogpa' is the name given by the Purig people of Kargil, which means more or less "hillbilly"[6] while Drokpa is the name given by the Bod people of Leh district.[7]
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.[8]
Economy and employment
The Brogpa economy has shifted from agropastoralism to wage labor, and the division of labor that relied on stratifications of age and gender is now obsolete. The Brogpa transition to private property, monogamy, nuclear families, formal education, wage labor, and their incorporation into a highly militarized economy of soldiering and portering illuminates the complex workings of modernity in Ladakh.[9]
See also
References
- ^ "ST-14 Scheduled Tribe Population By Religious Community" (PDF). Census of India. Ministry of Home Affairs, India. Retrieved 15 October 2017.
- ^ Jain, Danesh; Cardona, George (26 July 2007). The Indo-Aryan Languages. Routledge. p. 889. ISBN 978-1-135-79711-9.
- ^ a b c atlasofhumanity.com. "India, Brokpa People". Atlas Of Humanity. Retrieved 6 March 2022.
- ^ "Religion Data of Census 2011: XXXIII JK-HP-ST". Retrieved 23 February 2020.
- ^ Khan, Arman (4 May 2022). "This 'Aryan' Community's 'Exotic' Clothes and Polyamorous Marriages Mask Other Truths". Vice Media. Retrieved 8 May 2022.
- ^ Advani, Rukun (22 May 2014). Written Forever: The Best of Civil Lines. Hachette India. p. 234. ISBN 978-93-5009-783-0.
- ^ "Brokskat". Ethnologue. Retrieved 23 February 2020.
- ^ "Bhasin, Veena: Social Change, Religion and Medicine among Brokpas of Ladakh, Ethno-Med., 2(2): 77-102 (2008)" (PDF). Retrieved 23 February 2020.
- ^ Bhan, Mona (2013). "1.Becoming Brogpa". Counterinsurgency, Democracy and the Politics of Identity in India. Routledge South Asia Series. ISBN 9781138948426.
External links
- The Far East in Words and Pictures
- "From Nomadic Tribesmen to Nazi Icons: Who Were the Aryans?, heritage-key.com". Archived from the original on 7 August 2010. Retrieved 23 February 2020.