BHOTIYAS

Bhotiyas are a nomadic pastoral community living in the hilly terrains of Uttarakhand, Sikkim, Himachal Pradesh, Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh with their flock of goats, sheep and ponies. They traded with Tibet until 1962, but after the war with China, the Indo-Tibetan border was sealed and the Bhotiyas permanently settled in India. Bhotiya nomads living at Dunda near Uttarkashi practice a combination of Tibetan Buddhism and Hinduism.

As I walked through the narrow lanes of Dunda village, I saw women spinning wool, knitting sweaters, topis (caps) and socks. The weather in this region is cold and most of the

produce is used by the local people. Resident traders place orders for knitted caps and socks during the tourist season. Men, along with their large flock of Himalayan sheep and goat, had left for Harshil in the hills. They spend the winter months in the plains and migrate to Harshil by early May, to spend the summer months in the hilly terrain where they have fodder for their cattle. The women were getting ready to leave in a couple of days.

The sheep wool is sheared twice a year and the fleece is segregated in white and black. The fleece is boiled in a soap solution, washed and sun-dried. Women open the locks, picking and teasing it to make it light and fluffy and remove the impurities. This cleaned fleece is taken to a small carding factory in their village, where it is combed and made into sliver balls. Women spin this wool on the bageshwari charkha, which has increased production but few old women prefer to use the traditional takli (spindle) for spinning.

They spin the white and black fleece separately and part of clean white and black fleece is mixed together and spun to get shades of natural greys. Some of the white fleece is dyed in lovely rich shades of brown using walnut roots or walnut shells. The outer shells of the walnut fruit are pounded and boiled for a few hours till the shells releases the pigment. This liquid is strained and then the fleece is immersed in this solution and boiled. Once the fleece has absorbed the dye evenly, which could take an hour or two, it is sun dried.

I spent the morning chatting with a group of women as they opened and cleaned wool fleece. We exchanged stories about our lives; they were as curious about my life as I was about their customs and way of life. There was a mound of fleece from the sheep that belong to one the woman at whose house the others had gathered. They all looked cheerful, chatting with each other as they teased the fleece. I asked how they calculated the work done by each. The woman said, “today we have gathered at my place. In a day or two when my work is done we will all move to the other person’s house. It helps to be together; the day goes by pleasantly and the work gets done”. I raised the point that some might be slow or busy chatting and do less work. So how would that work ? She was amused, looked at me and said, “how can you count such things in friendship? What is important is that we spend a happy day together and our work gets done”.

They weave beautiful narrow width fabrics in a range of plains, stripes and checks all using natural black, white, greys and shades of brown for their coats and jackets. They wear the same jacket for years so the construction of the fabric is tight and sturdy. Some organisations, such as the Himalayan Weaves and Ganga Maki Studio purchase hand-spun woollen yarn from them for their own production. This income is a welcome addition to their meagre earnings. Sustained, regular orders would improve their financial condition.