Unmasking AIT

[Husky]

Post 1/



Not intended originally for this thread, but other stuff I found puts it here.



Brokpa/Drogpa (sp?) are a Dardic-speaking population of India's Ladakh region. (Kashmiri is another language classed as Dardic.)

Brokpa/Drogpa are listed as a "Dard" population (like the Kalash Kafirs of Chitral).



None of that's particularly interesting.





What's interesting is that their religion is said to be:

- Either Tibetan Buddhist on the surface but with discernable traces of Bon (implied as being their ancestral religion)

- OR plain Bon (along with -presumably other- animism)



All while at least some of the Brokpa definitely look Indic. Whereas others look Himalayan/Turkic/Mongolian. Then again, the Himalayan region is seguing country (Indic meets Tibetan-Mongolian/C-Asian), so they may simply encompass a range of phenotypes. Of course, while it's known that the Afghan and Persian regions also long had a presence of C-Asian (Shamanist) tribes practising their ancestral Shamanist religion of Bon there, still, no one I read ever produced actual evidence that it was the Iranians and ethnic-Afghans (Indics) practising Bon over there.





1. Wacky says of the Brokpa/Drogpa of the Ladakhi villages of Da and Hann:

"Dardic religion in Indian Ladakh, particularly in the villages of Da and Hann, retains marked traces of the pre-Buddhist animistic religion, Bon-chos. retains marked traces of the pre-Buddhist animistic religion, Bon-chos."



(Oooh, I note Tibetan Buddhists haven't defaced this wacky page yet with how Bon is suddenly "a post-Buddhist Buddhist religion"... Maybe Tibetan Buddhists feel intimidated by the fact that the Drogpas/Brokpas are classed as a "scheduled tribe" and their religio-cultural identity is protected?)



en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dard_people

Dard people

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



The Dard people are a group of people predominantly found in northern Pakistan's Gilgit–Baltistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, northern India's Jammu and Kashmir, and eastern Afghanistan.



There is a small community of dards admixed with tibetan ladakhis in ladakh under indian administered Jammu and kashmir state is known as Brokpa, Drokpa and Shin, and speak Dardic languages.[1]



Contents



1 Origin

2 Religion

3 Social status

4 See also

5 References



Origin



Parpola (1999) identifies "Proto-Dardic" with "Proto-Rigvedic", suggesting that the Dards are the linguistic descendants of the bearers of proto Rigvedic culture ca. 1700 BC, pointing to features in certain Dardic dialects that continue peculiarities of Rigvedic Sanskrit, such as the gerund in -tvī (p. 189).



During Swati rule, the Dard people predominantly followed the Kalash religion and frequent small-scale jihad against Dards may have been a routine.[2]

Religion



The majority of Dardic peoples are Muslims except a small population of polytheistic Kalash[2][3] Dardic religion in Indian Ladakh, particularly in the villages of Da and Hann, retains marked traces of the pre-Buddhist animistic religion, Bon-chos.[3] The Kalash tribes found in Chitral, are exceptional in having retained their ancestral polytheistic religion and are officially protected by the Government of Pakistan.

Social status



As of 2001, the Dards in Ladakh region (better known as Brokpa, Drokpa etc.) of indian administered state of Jammu and Kashmir were classified as a Scheduled Tribe under the Indian government's reservation program of positive discrimination.[1]

(The mention of "Bon-chos" above links to wacky's Bon page.)



Intriguing how the allegedly "pure Aryan" Brokpa/Drokpa get Scheduled Tribe status only because they're not Hindu.

(Look, I'm not begrudging them special status, but obviously the discrimination is against anything that is Hindu under the excuse of AIT, since alleged pure oryans - and Drogpa are believed by nazis to be Da purest of the pure oryans [whatever that means] - are not targeted by the same AIT hate campaign, but are instead declared as scheduled tribe which is pretty much "adivasi"/native-to-the-soil status.)



Surprised that no one's curiosity seems to be piqued as to why a population that looks more Afghan or Kashmiri/Indic than E Asian has a religion that should exhibit apparent traces of Bon - of all things. I mean, southern Chinese vanavasi tribes (looking pretty E Asian and very native to their region of South China) show clear traces of Bon religion (or ancestor to Bon religion).



2. The wacky Brokpa page -

Religion: Tibetan Buddhist, Bön, Animist

[...]

They are nominally Buddhist, however animist and Bön rituals still survive.[3]

(Well, that said, many laity in supposedly Buddhist countries tend to be super-nominally Buddhist and mostly of ancestral heathen religion. Others are miscounted as Buddhist what's more)



Oddly, the previous edit of the same page features an out-of-place looking photo (get the impression that drawing attention to the eye-colour is the point of it?) but the more interesting edit is the change from:



en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Brokpa_%28Ladakh%29&oldid=645107672

Regions with significant populations:

Dha-Hanu valley, Ladakh, India.

to:

en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Brokpa_%28Ladakh%29&oldid=645108140

Regions with significant populations



Dha,Darchiks,Garkhone valley, [[Lada

<break>

kh]], India.

3. This next weirdo link - advertising for how this poor population is "pure oryan, oryan, bei gott", declares the Drokpa/Brokpa to be animists and Bon by religion (Bon like any heathen religion is animist, as all know, but it is also specifically Shamanist from all that I've read).



travel.india.com/ladakh/places-to-visit/valleys-dha-hanu

Dha-Hanu

Listed Under Valleys in Ladakh





Place Details:



Renowned as ‘the Land of Aryans’, Dha and Hanu village are settlements of Drokpa or Brokpa community in Ladakh. The village is located about 163 km northwest of Leh at the confluence of rivers Shyok and Indus in Kargil region in Jammu and Kashmir.



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; however, tourists are allowed only in two villages – Dha and Hanu. Besides tourists, the villages also attract anthropologists. (This last - the alleged "anthropologists" that are attracted to the place - turns out to be a... curiosity in itself, see further down.



But oh wow if this isn't the 1000th time that the Alexander excuse has been thrown up for a community in Indic space looking slightly fairer than the Kashmiris or the pre-islamic-invasion Afghans...)



The custom of marrying within the community has ensured the Brokpas have retained their distinctive features. Brokpa have fair complexion and blue coloured eyes. The custom of marrying within the community has, however, limited the population of Brokpas. The community hardly numbers over 2000. (And way too many dubious "tourists" coming to intermarry, see below.



But images do not show them with blue eyes nor always with a fair - w.r.t. Indic range - skintone.)





Drokpa or Brokpa community is racially and culturally distinct from the common 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.



Unlike rest of Ladakh which is predominantly Buddhist, Brokpas are animist and follow the Bon religion. They consider Ibex as sacred animal. The Brokpa people have preserved their traditions and rituals over the ages.



[...]

In all the pictures that I've seen of Brokpas/Drokpas so far, none of them had blue eyes or fair hair. Note that Google Images also presents images of Kalash Kafirs when searching for Drokpas, so ignore those. (More shocking is that at least one image of fair-haired, blue-eyed Kalash Kafiri girl - who also turns up under Drokpa search - turns out to have been photoshopped: her brown eyes and darker hair and even darker skintone all got a "lift" until I'm sure she wouldn't have recognised herself.)



3. Images. Their clothing certainly makes them look like the kind of population that western people would classify as "exotic" or even as "tribal" (and animist...):



a. beforethey.com/tribe/drokpa

"Before They Pass Away" site



None of the images of Brokpas have blue-eyed (or fair-haired) persons, most of them look distinctly Indic and not what Europeans would regard as fair. One of them even looks like they could pass for Himalayan (tinge of E Asian).

“Boast during the day, be humble at night”



Around 2,500 Drokpas live in three small villages in a disputed territory between India and Pakistan. (Huh? Then why not say that China also claims ownership of all of Jammu and Kashmir not just Ladakh, see wacky, and not just Pakistan?) The only fertile valley of Ladakh. The Drokpas are completely different– physically, culturally, linguistically and socially – from the Tibeto-Burman inhabitants of most of Ladakh.



For centuries, the Drokpas have been indulging in public kissing and wife-swapping without inhibitions. Their cultural exuberance is reflected in exquisite dresses and ornaments. Their main sources of income are products from the well-tended vegetable gardens.

b. More pictures can be found by googling for "Brokpa". Again, be warned not to confuse Brokpa with the images of the few fair Kalash Kafirs* that suddenly show up among a google image search for Brokpas (perhaps because the Brokpas have been slandered as "pure oryans" - which would certainly be interesting if true, since about 50% of the first page of Google Image results show photos of Himalayan Sino-Tibetan looking people rather than Indic ones).



* Interesting also that the first Google search image for Kalash Kafirs is the doctored one of the girl who suddenly has fair hair and light eyes (thanks to Photoshop).



c. Among the Google search results:



flickr.com/photos/waltercallens/4882276651/

India - Traditional dances and culture of the Brokpa people - A tribal community in the Dha-Hanu valley of Ladakh.



Drokpa (or Brokpa) community is considered as the last race of Aryans, confined to the Dha valley. Their features are pure Indo Aryan and they have preserved their racial purity down the centuries.



Their culture and religious practices are very similar to ancient pre-Buddhist religion known as Bon-Chos. Both the men and women folk adorn headgears made with handpicked fresh flowers, every single day.

(More images at that link in a manual slideshow, all of which are in line with the above image.)



But going by the image of this Brokpa person - see above - and which image led me to the flickr page and its description of the Brokpa:



So the "purest Aryans" - as the linked flickr text is advertising - look more like .... native Americans than even Indics let alone Europods? Way Cool! Who knew?

(OK, some of the other Flickr images in this collection also happen to look Indic, but none look European I'd say.)





4. And then this Facecrooks page has more images - but these look distinctly Indic, mostly plain Indian though the last image also looks Afghan.



Yet the text says:



facebook.com/Ladakhbagpackers/posts/292892917568164

Ladakh Backpackers added 3 new photos.

December 8, 2014 · Edited ·



The Brokpa tribe of Ladakh belonging to a wider community of Dardic people is one of the earliest settlers of Ladakh. According to many historians , they trace their history as "the wandering soldiers of Alexander ( Macedonia)". The community is one of the brightest jewels in the diverse beautiful ethic mixture of Ladakh. The tribe continues to follow the intangible and tangible heritage including Shina language and major remnants of ancient Bon practices.



(IIRC, the Kalash Kafirs were also repeatedly brainwashed with the whole "you must be remnants of a lost Greek contingent" story and now many believe it apparently. Googling says that DNA tests don't confirm any Greek ancestry after all. Bummer for those who were too invested in it. But wonder how the Greeks feel with all kinds of random people getting lumped with them for no good reason.



But I will say some among the Kalash Kafirs at least do look more Greek than the Brokpa tend to. Then again, the Kalash just look like a population that is somewhere between Anatolia and India - I don't know why there should be a sudden cut off.



Having said all of that, maybe the Kalash of Chitral have/had also attracted European oryanism-chasers like the Brokpa have (see further below)... I mean, why are all the fair-haired etc Kalash Kafiris pictures of youngsters - as mentioned in a forum, see post below - yet these are not features so much seen in the older generations. Though lighter eyes don't count for much: green and grey eyes are accidental as per my NL biology teacher (but can be compounded by inbreeding).)



Ladakh Backpackers



Brokpa children in traditional attire - one of the purest Aryan community in the entire subcontinet

December 8, 2014 at 7:52pm



Ladakh Backpackers Darchiks, Garkon, Dah, Hanu, Biama are a group of villages nesting along the steep bank of Indus River in Kargil and Leh districts of the Ladakh region. These villages are home to an exclusive tribal community called ‘Brokpas/ Drokpas’, who are considered to be descendent of a lost Aryan tribe. They are distinctly different, both racially and culturally from the other inhabitants of the region

1 · December 8, 2014 at 11:54am



(Uh, what's a "lost Aryan tribe"? Are they confusing "the lost Jewish tribe" mythos with PIE mythos? The alleged original aryans/PIE entities themselves are "Lost", or rather, they didn't go missing but were never found in the first place. Never mind.)



Tenzin Wangchuk

they are such a beautiful people. are they buddhist???

December 21, 2014 at 3:43am



(Apparently not: they're not quite Buddhist or not at all Buddhist, depending on which wacky page you read.

But the leap by Tenzin Wangchuk - Tibetan Buddhist name I'm guessing - from "they are such a beautiful people" to "are they buddhist?" is a bit creepy...

Tibetans are a beautiful people themselves, very easy on my eyes. But then I have a serious E/SE Asian/Himalayan bias and it's only growing.)