Day 9 1 May Invitation to a Drokpa wedding

Photo above - it was not my idea to wear the hat. A Drokpa guest wanted me to try It on. It is heavier than it looks.

Flash floods and power cuts

It was a lot milder last night compared with the -8c nights we have been used to. This area known as the Aryan valley, is known to be warmer and more fertile than a lot in Ladakh.

I had an interesting talk with the manager of the hotel. The hotel is only open from April to September, so in October he goes south to work in Goa. The hotel is right next to the River Indus, and in 2010 there were devastating flash floods following a massive cloudburst here and several houses were washed away. A couple of buildings that were on the banks of the river are now permanently in it! The road was washed away and rebuilt at a higher level and a different course to make the river wider here.

Currently the hotel has no electricity, because of the heavy snowfalls a week ago. Manual repairs are needed further up the valley, and apparently there is a lack of necessary skilled labour to do these. The result is that a temporary supply is provided in the early evening for a couple of hours every day until the repairs are complete. Until two days ago, there was no supply at all!

Drokpa culture

After breakfast we setoff for the Drokpa village of Dah. Dah (pop 1800), Hanu, Garkun & Dartsik villages are famous as ‘the Land of Aryans’, the settlements of the Drokpa or Brokpa community in Ladakh.

According to popular belief, the Brokpas were part of the army of Alexander the Great and came to the region over two thousand years ago. The Brokpas reside in five villages, four of which are in India and one in Pakistan.

The custom of marrying within the community has ensured the Drokpas have retained their distinctive features. It has also however, limited the population of Brokpas. The community hardly numbers over 2000.

The Drokpa community is racially and culturally distinct from other Ladakhis. The community has a unique sense of dressing. The community, especially women makes it a practice to wear flowers on their hats. The practice has earned them the sobriquet of flower women of Ladakh. The community also practices polyandry (marriage of a woman to two or more man at same time). We saw a smattering of Drokpa at the monastery in Lamayuru a couple of days ago, and the lady in the village yesterday who gave us tea was Drokpa.

Farming in the high altitude mountains

The road to Dah took us 7km further down the valley, at times hugging the rock face on one side, with the Indus far below on the other side.The final stretch was another steep hairpin road up high in to the mountains to the village. Dah village is little more than a gravel boulder strewn road a 100m or so long. The houses stretch up the mountain on one side, and the other side is reasonably flat and cultivated. We came across a woman irrigating her patch of land. The water is moved around the village in a clever network of gulleys and trenches, and as we arrived, she was directing the water around the field by building little dams and gulleys in the earth with her spade.

As we were talking with her, a Drokpa lady went passed driving her goats. As we were walking back to the car, we came across a man dressed in traditional costume. Turned out he was going to the wedding we had heard about, and needed a lift, so we happily obliged.

A Drokpa wedding in a Drokpa village

The village of Garkun is a few km further along the valley. No one seemed sure what time the wedding would start, so we parked a little way away from the village to make sure we did not risk being boxed in by other cars. As we walked into the village, we saw people sitting at the side waiting for the bridegroom to go passed. They had plates of rice and other food which I guess were some kind of offerings.

Further on we came across a mother doing her daughter's hair at the side of the road, and round the corner we saw two girls, one of whom was washing her hair in a stream. As we neared the top of the village, we suddenly saw a lot of male wedding attendees coming down the hill, led it turned out by the groom, all dressed in traditional attire. We followed them down the hill, watching as they stopped to talk to people at the side. They then disappeared down a tiny lane towards the coloured awnings we had seen as we walked up.

We followed them down and found ourselves in the middle of lots of locals milling around. An older gentleman who was part of the organising family immediately said we were welcome to stay and invited us up into a two storey house overlooking the open area where the festivities were due to take place. There were four or five rooms on the floor we were on. In one were all the male guests, in another were all the female, minus the bride who would arrive later.

Two glasses of Chang is not enough to make me dance

We were ushered very politely into another room with rugs on the floor and a couple of low tables. We were given tea and made welcome. We were told we were free to go where we wished and could take photos. An uncle and the brides father came in to talk with us, then we were offered some Chang, which is locally brewed beer, but is more like a strong wine or spirit.

We decided to take them up on their offer, and with slight trepidation us two westerners who didnt have a clue what was happening, entered this small room filled with Drokpas in traditional attire, drinking Chang and singing traditional songs! We squeezed into a small space on the floor, and we were immediately offered more Chang, plus whisky and brandy! Luckily we were sat next to a younger guy who spoke some English, so he helped us along, although he had definitely had a few Changs!

Turns out that the most gregarious of the singers, sat in the corner leading the others, was his Grandfather. One thing led to another and I was persuaded to put on the traditional flower hat! A few people started drifting out of the room, so we made our excuses and went back outside to try and take some photos as more and more people started to arrive.

Amazing scenes as the ceremony really kicks off

The costumes really are amazing, especially the women's. No one seemed to object to us taking photos. We wandered around the outside area where people were now sitting around in the shade of the temporary awnings. All of a sudden all the men came out and started to do a slow dance in a circle, singing the songs they had been songing inside, and accompanied by the sort of music you might expect to hear a snake charmer play, based as it was primarily on a indl instrument, along with some drums.

Then after a while the women started gathering in a group, and then they also joined the men in the slow circular dance. An absolutely amazing sight to see. There was then a bit of a lull, during which people sat talking, or started some ad hoc singing. Then a couple of blue plastic chairs were put out in the centre, and the bride and groom came out to sit down, and to be admired, photographed, talked to, given gifts etc. we gave them some money which we had to present to them along with a welcome scarf.

An early exit

By this time it was 3pm and standing around in the heat for a lot of the day was taking its toll. We left to go back to the hotel and reflect on how lucky we were to have stumbled upon this event, and then been invited to attend. The two locals we are travelling with had not ever seen a Drokpa wedding ceremony themselves.

Tomorrow, we travel back up the Indus valley to visit some more local villages.