The Ghams of Ladakh...
On the 18th afternoon (we wanted to leave in the morning, but missed the early bus... therefore, I spent most of the day putting up pictures for you to enjoy), we left for our "Homestays" in Ladakhi villages. They basically tell you where these villages are, and they inform the residents that we're coming.
I could write in detail... because there is so much to write about.. but I'll try to keep it short... for now, I'll write about what we did... and I'll write about my thoughts and observations later...
Outline: We stayed for two nights in the village of Tarutse (near Likir), and then trekked (supposed to be a 6 hour treak) to the village of Ulley, where we stayed two nights. We then trekked (1.5 hours) to Yang-thang, where we took the bus back to Leh.
Village life: Working on the farm, chatting in the kitchen, drinking a lot of tea (especially "butter tea" - water, tea, butter, and salt which they drink like water...), and just pinching myself so I'd realize that it all wasn't a dream.... that's what life was like.
Tarutse: As soon as we got to the house, we were introduced to everyone, Dolma (wife), Dorje (husband), Aanchook (brother of husband), and little Lak-pa (adopted Nepali kid that goes to school and helps with work). Soon after, we joined them in there work on the farm - we collected wheat/barley that was already harvested and put them into bags. Ladakhis have a different "chant/song/whistle" for each type of work... as we worked.. "yaa-li la-mo-le", we chanted. =) As we were coming back into the house, I was told to grab the leash of the bull to "bring him in". I was following Dorje-le (they use "-le" as we use "-ji" for respect), and didn't know where to take the bull. BLUNDER #1 - I brought the bull all the way through the last gate before the house - where Dolma-le was milking the cow... she suddenly saw the bull and let out a loud "yelp!"... for a second, I thought I did something TERRIBLY wrong... it wasn't as a big as I first though... I realized this wasn't where the bull was supposed to go... and retraced my tracks and they showed me where the bull was supposed to be. The kitchen is the center of the household... after all the work is done, everyone sits in the kitchen to chat before dinner, then they eat dinner, and then continue chatting after dinner. This is when BLUNDER #2 occurred for me. As were chatting... I was whistling the "yali lamole" tune, but Dorje-le told me to stop, suddenly. He told me that they believe that if you whistle after dark, then you are calling ghosts! He joked semi-seriously, "I'm only trying to help you - they'll come after you when they come, not us..." Fortunately for me... no ghosts that night.
The next entire day we spent with Dorje-le, as Dolma-le went to a relative's place because there was a death in the family. We woke up at around 5:45 AM, and went through our morning routine. After some tea, we were back to work outside. After chasing away the sheep and cows that were feasting on the harvest... we gathered more wheat/barley in bags, then emptied the bags on top of a storage room, and then pushed the barley through a whole in the roof into the storage room. BLUNDER #3 - As I was helping push the barley through the whole, I was walking to the other side, on top of the pile of barley... when suddenly my foot fell in! I just discovered the second hole into the storage room. I wasn't hurt.. and we went about our business.... =P We washed our clothes in the stream.. took a bath in the stream.. did "pooja" in their mandhir (every Ladakhi has a very large mandhir in their home)...Sampat churned butter...
Overall, a very solid village experience.
The trek to Ulley: This description will probably find its own blog entry... basically, a "supposedly" 6 hour journey... was actually an 11 hour journey for us... from 7:30 am to 6:30 pm, from starting point to final destination.
Ulley: Ulley is a 7 household gham perched high in the dry Himalayan region. I'm not going to go into too much detail... but basically, we did some more farm work... and some more learning about Ladakhi culture, and village life. We helped separate the barley from the dry grass - after the yak were done trampling on them to get the barley out. We walked around a little... Sampat climbed a mountain... I churned butter this time... we did a little Ladakhi dancing with 15-year-old Stunzen... we kicked it with Dadi... overall... just another day on the farm. =)
Observations:
-Nonstop tea.
-Women seem to have a pretty equal status to men - Dorje-le cooked and cleaned and everything when Dolma-le was gone.
-Each family (our survey of 4 houses that we visited) had children that were in Leh or Himis (another city) that were going to school, but they still had one male family member to pass the farm on to. The kids that go to school are probably going to get "jobs".
-Farm work.. physical labor.. is TOUGH.. especially for us.. who aren't used to it. But, the Ladakhis work hard... but the work is still done at their own pace... and doesn't seem "forced".
-The houses in the villages are really spread out... and it seems that one can easily get lonely as they are only surrounded by their own family.
-The standard family has a fairly large house (2 to 3 stories), a large amount of land where they grow barley and possibly some other fruits and vegetables, a large number of various animals - sheep, yak, cows, bulls, goat, etc.
-Pooja in the mandhir is a daily part of life.
-Everyone that is living in the household helps out with work - it's pretty well-divided (even Dadi was hard at work!)
-The "warm" welcoming feeling is slightly clouded by the fact that we were paying guests. In Tarutse, we got a pretty homely feeling, while in Ulley, they treated us a little more like "customers"... meaning they treated us extremely well... giving us food, boiled water, chai, etc. etc... but not that "homely" feeling. It may have also been because we had a hard time communicating with them, as they spoke little Hindi.
-The Ladakhis, in general, are very warm, welcoming people... all you have to do is smile and say "jhule!!!"
-A lot of foreigners go trekking in Ladakh... but very few people of Indian descent can be seen on thr routes.
I could write in detail... because there is so much to write about.. but I'll try to keep it short... for now, I'll write about what we did... and I'll write about my thoughts and observations later...
Outline: We stayed for two nights in the village of Tarutse (near Likir), and then trekked (supposed to be a 6 hour treak) to the village of Ulley, where we stayed two nights. We then trekked (1.5 hours) to Yang-thang, where we took the bus back to Leh.
Village life: Working on the farm, chatting in the kitchen, drinking a lot of tea (especially "butter tea" - water, tea, butter, and salt which they drink like water...), and just pinching myself so I'd realize that it all wasn't a dream.... that's what life was like.
Tarutse: As soon as we got to the house, we were introduced to everyone, Dolma (wife), Dorje (husband), Aanchook (brother of husband), and little Lak-pa (adopted Nepali kid that goes to school and helps with work). Soon after, we joined them in there work on the farm - we collected wheat/barley that was already harvested and put them into bags. Ladakhis have a different "chant/song/whistle" for each type of work... as we worked.. "yaa-li la-mo-le", we chanted. =) As we were coming back into the house, I was told to grab the leash of the bull to "bring him in". I was following Dorje-le (they use "-le" as we use "-ji" for respect), and didn't know where to take the bull. BLUNDER #1 - I brought the bull all the way through the last gate before the house - where Dolma-le was milking the cow... she suddenly saw the bull and let out a loud "yelp!"... for a second, I thought I did something TERRIBLY wrong... it wasn't as a big as I first though... I realized this wasn't where the bull was supposed to go... and retraced my tracks and they showed me where the bull was supposed to be. The kitchen is the center of the household... after all the work is done, everyone sits in the kitchen to chat before dinner, then they eat dinner, and then continue chatting after dinner. This is when BLUNDER #2 occurred for me. As were chatting... I was whistling the "yali lamole" tune, but Dorje-le told me to stop, suddenly. He told me that they believe that if you whistle after dark, then you are calling ghosts! He joked semi-seriously, "I'm only trying to help you - they'll come after you when they come, not us..." Fortunately for me... no ghosts that night.
The next entire day we spent with Dorje-le, as Dolma-le went to a relative's place because there was a death in the family. We woke up at around 5:45 AM, and went through our morning routine. After some tea, we were back to work outside. After chasing away the sheep and cows that were feasting on the harvest... we gathered more wheat/barley in bags, then emptied the bags on top of a storage room, and then pushed the barley through a whole in the roof into the storage room. BLUNDER #3 - As I was helping push the barley through the whole, I was walking to the other side, on top of the pile of barley... when suddenly my foot fell in! I just discovered the second hole into the storage room. I wasn't hurt.. and we went about our business.... =P We washed our clothes in the stream.. took a bath in the stream.. did "pooja" in their mandhir (every Ladakhi has a very large mandhir in their home)...Sampat churned butter...
Overall, a very solid village experience.
The trek to Ulley: This description will probably find its own blog entry... basically, a "supposedly" 6 hour journey... was actually an 11 hour journey for us... from 7:30 am to 6:30 pm, from starting point to final destination.
Ulley: Ulley is a 7 household gham perched high in the dry Himalayan region. I'm not going to go into too much detail... but basically, we did some more farm work... and some more learning about Ladakhi culture, and village life. We helped separate the barley from the dry grass - after the yak were done trampling on them to get the barley out. We walked around a little... Sampat climbed a mountain... I churned butter this time... we did a little Ladakhi dancing with 15-year-old Stunzen... we kicked it with Dadi... overall... just another day on the farm. =)
Observations:
-Nonstop tea.
-Women seem to have a pretty equal status to men - Dorje-le cooked and cleaned and everything when Dolma-le was gone.
-Each family (our survey of 4 houses that we visited) had children that were in Leh or Himis (another city) that were going to school, but they still had one male family member to pass the farm on to. The kids that go to school are probably going to get "jobs".
-Farm work.. physical labor.. is TOUGH.. especially for us.. who aren't used to it. But, the Ladakhis work hard... but the work is still done at their own pace... and doesn't seem "forced".
-The houses in the villages are really spread out... and it seems that one can easily get lonely as they are only surrounded by their own family.
-The standard family has a fairly large house (2 to 3 stories), a large amount of land where they grow barley and possibly some other fruits and vegetables, a large number of various animals - sheep, yak, cows, bulls, goat, etc.
-Pooja in the mandhir is a daily part of life.
-Everyone that is living in the household helps out with work - it's pretty well-divided (even Dadi was hard at work!)
-The "warm" welcoming feeling is slightly clouded by the fact that we were paying guests. In Tarutse, we got a pretty homely feeling, while in Ulley, they treated us a little more like "customers"... meaning they treated us extremely well... giving us food, boiled water, chai, etc. etc... but not that "homely" feeling. It may have also been because we had a hard time communicating with them, as they spoke little Hindi.
-The Ladakhis, in general, are very warm, welcoming people... all you have to do is smile and say "jhule!!!"
-A lot of foreigners go trekking in Ladakh... but very few people of Indian descent can be seen on thr routes.
posted by Raj Kanani | 6:21 PM
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