‘As old as hills’ is an oft repeated phrase being commonly used in every day talk of ours and the same goes for the relations between humans and the mountains. A visit to mountains act as an elixir in a man’s life casting away the everyday weakness and infusing his very being with nature’s blessing in the form of fresh air and a bountiful of greenery in every hue. India as a country has been most fortunate for having been blessed with mountain ranges across its length and breadth of its 4 corners. Blessed are the people, flora and fauna which are found in the close proximity of these mountains. Of all the mountain ranges ,the Himalayas in the north of the country takes the cake for its rich and varied topography having cast an impressionable image on the lifestyle of the local population in all its forms. After having successfully completed the Siachen tenure with my Battalion and the much needed (R&R) rest and relief at Leh, self was ushered into yet another equally pristine, fresh and relatively untouched Himalayan territory of Roopa valley in distant Kinnaur of Himachal Pradesh. Kinnaur is one of the twelve administrative districts of the state of Himachal Pradesh in northern India with three administrative areas –Pooh, Kalpa and Nichar, with district headquarters at Reckongpeo. The district is about 235 kms from the state capital of Shimla , located in the north east corner of the state bordering Tibet to the east.The district has mountain ranges like Zanskar and Himalayas that enclose valleys of Sutluj, Spiti and Baspa. Entering into Kinnaur district from anywhere else in India has to be via the famous Hindustan- Tibet road or NH-05(previously NH 22). Built by Lord Dalhousie the then Governor General in 1850, its one of the most treacherous roads ever to be built to date. The route from Delhi along with the distances between the subsequent places are- Delhi-Shimla(360kms)-Narkanda(420kms)-Rampur-(488kms)-Karcham-(566kms)-Reckong peo(587kms)-Kalpa(595kms).

At Karcham the route bifurcates towards Sangla valley and later Chitkul. This ancient silk route passes through Kinnaur along the river Satluj .The valleys of Satluj, Baspa and Spiti are one of the most gorgeous ones in India, with all three featuring many times in the national geographic cover page. I had the good fortune of having been located in the valley of Roopa near Pooh of Kinnaur which is famous for shawl weaving, apple orchards, and the finest metal artisans.Most of the valley of Roopa including Kinnaur is inaccessible mountainous area cutoff from the rest of the world, that even in our sacred Puranas, the living beings of this area were called as something between Gods and human beings, they being so pure and close to nature. The people of Roopa valley are called as Kinnars following Hinduism or Buddhism with a spoken language which is a mix of Tibeto-Burman family known as Kinnauri and wear distinct green colour caps. Houses and streets and almost everything is made of wood and stone and peopled by warm and gregarious looking masses with distinct mongoloid features. A small diversion just 10 kms short of Pooh leads to the scenic valley of Roopa in Kinnaur spread on the banks of river Roopa ,which meets the Satluj on NH 05/22. A wide valley stuffed with apple orchards of delicious variety and beautiful houses built in Kinnauri style welcomes you which warm the innermost cockles of your heart. With ample of time at my hands and weather holding steady, I set off to explore the nooks and corners of the valley of Roopa and always came back armed with loads of information which was hitherto unknown to me as a wanderlust. Roopa valley being part of Kinnaur should only be visited either during the spring season or autumn, when the weather is relatively dry salubrious and the road conditions good ready to take on the woes of traffic influx of plains. The area is a veritable Mecca of delicious apples, Chilgozas and Khurmanis .Almost all the orchards are owned by the Negi caste of this area, making them one of the richest in the area. The enterprising orchard owners have installed wooden packaging assembly units in their orchards for quick and easy scientific way of packing of their produce, which is transported across to the major procurement centers of the country like the Azadpurmandi in Delhi or on ward journey abroad.

In the similar manner the Chilgozas, Khurmanis too find their way across the length and breadth of india. The scientific way of packaging of the produce has ensured the longevity of it ,and combined with the timely announcement of the MSP( Minimum support price) by the GOI regarding various varities of apple and dry fruits ahead of the procurement season has ensured a windfall of profits for the orchard owners. Roopa valley typically falls under the middle Kinnaurarea, which is an area between Kalpa and Kannum including Moorang tehsil. Kinnaur can be typically divided into three distinct regions, with lower Kinnaur comprising an area between chora at the border of the Kinnaur district with Rampur Bushahr and Kalpa including Nichar and Sangla valleys. The people here are primarily of Mediterranean physical types; belonging to the Hindu religion though the ethno-historical factors have resulted in some Buddhist influence over them. The people of middle Kinnaur are of mixed mongoloid and other Mediterranean features. In some cases there is an admixture of the above two in varying degrees. The upper Kinnaur area is populated by more of mongoloid race usually following the Buddhist religion of Mahayana line. The society as such in Kinnaur is quite simple with least amount of subdivisions amongst them, primarily having Kanets (Rajputs) and the scheduled castes .The Kanets comprise the main cultivating community of the area and use the honorific name as Negi. The scheduled castes in the district are mainly the chamangs and the domangs. The chamangs are traditional weavers and make cloth, whereas the domangs are basically the black smiths. As far as the dress worn by the people in the Roopa valley is concerned, it’s mostly the woolens suited to the hilly terrain obtaining in Kinnaur. The head dress typically called as the Thepang is of light grey colour or of white colour, with a colour of velvet band on the outer fold. Green, crimson, blue, and yellow are other colours preferred by the locals. The women wear up a woolen shawl called as Dohru, with footwear made of wool and goat hair and sole made of goat hide. The houses in the entire Roopa valley are two storied, built of stone and wood. These houses are roofed with layers of bhojpatra (tree bark) covered with earth.

I was particularly struck by the food habits of the Kinnars who used to solely rely on local producehaving a mix of wheat, ogla, phafra and barley. The vegetables usually consumed by the kinnars are cabbage, turnips, peas, black peas and Rajmash. As far as the spoken language in Kinnaur is concerned, there are a number of dialects spoken by the locals. According to classification of languages, made by the linguistic survey of india, Kinnauri comes under the Tibeto-chinese family of languages .This has been further classified as language belonging to western sub group of pronominalized Himalayan group under Tibeto-Himalayan sub family. In Shimla hill gazetter 1910, there is a mention of three dialects spoken in Kinnaur, which are hindi, Kinnauri and English. In addition to these there are various dialects of the Kinnauri language spoken by the locals according to their topographical spread. The villages on the Tibetan border speak Tibetan dialects of western Tibet. The extent of spoken Tibetan is restricted to villages of Nesang, Kenu and Charang adjoining Tibet. Being in SFF (Special frontier force) comprising Tibetan troops, it was not much of an effort for me to employ them as interpreters in negotiating our day to day tasks while building bridges of bonhomie and camaraderie with the locals. The locals of Roopa village spoke shumceho dialect of Kinnauri language which was like lingua franca for my troops stationed there. Surprisingly both men and women of Sangla and Kalpa valley can speak English in addition to Hindi which a rarity is keeping the remoteness of the area. With the gradual weaning away of restrictions on inner line permit by the GOI in Kinnaur there is a faster integration of people and places with rest of India. Notwithstanding the above it is felt that much more needs to be done in these areas which have lived in isolation from the rest of the world for thousands of years.

(Author can be reached at slalotra4729@gmail.com)