Lost in their exoticity

Amit Sengupta

Photographed and curated by Virendra Bangroo, a recent exhibition on the Dard Aryans of Ladakh at the India International Centre, New Delhi, is both a tribute to their rich and ancient social and cultural legacy, and a fervent appeal to preserve their unique identity, which is rapidly getting eroded due to severe isolation in the inaccessible and tough terrain of Ladakh. Add to that the onslaught of urbanisation, lack of development and religious conversation.

Indeed, often mentioned as Brokpas — possible inheritors of Alexander’s army of soldiers who stayed back — the 4,000-odd Dard Aryans, in their spectacular and colourful dresses, are the last remaining members of an ancient indigenous community.

The exhibition presents a visual journey through Dha, Hanu, Garkone and Darchik in Ladakh. It also includes rock art in the region and the original imprints of human civilisation here in terms of artistic innovations, community life, faith, festivals and festivities, beliefs and practices of a community which uses the solar charter.

A 30-minute documentary film, Dard Aryans of Ladakh — Conflict between Tradition and Modernity, is part of the show. A section of the exhibition focuses on paintings made by the children of the Aryan Valley.

Surviving on meat and milk of sheep, the region is famous for its many varieties of grapes and perhaps the finest apricots in the world. The region is also called the ‘grape wine valley’ — a rare reality across the Indian landscape. Dard comes from the Sanksrit word Daradas, and the tribe is known to be inheritors of the ‘pure Aryan race’.

The Dard Aryans, mostly Buddhists, have retained their ancient cultural practices and beliefs despite great difficulties in their daily life, the hard terrain, harsh weather conditions and stark isolation. They are also crucial factors in the border as alert Indian citizens, even while some parts of their habitat are restricted for the rest of the country due to security reasons. After the Kargil War, the security scenario has become much more strict in the region. Lost in their exoticity, the Dard Aryans need more schools, access to higher education and employment based on their indigenous needs and practices.

According to Bangroo and other researchers, marriage outside the community is prohibited. However, a shift is happening with migration and marriages now being allowed with outsiders as well.

Bangroo, a scholar at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts (IGNCA) in Delhi, has travelled across the remotest, deepest and highest terrains of the Himalayas and has ceaselessly documented and worked for the preservation of its ethnic, material and aesthetic cultural inheritance. He has worked among this community for creating awareness about the rich cultural diversity of the region. 

With the help of Bangroo, two community museums have come up in the Aryan Valley, which have become role models for safeguarding the archival history, cultural heritage and sustainable development in the region.

Bangroo was born in Srinagar, Kashmir. An art historian, artist, poet and a trained museologist, he has designed several museums for the Indian Army and has curated exhibitions in India and abroad, including one on Rabindranath Tagore which has travelled all over the country, and to the Asia Culture Research and Archive, Gwangju, South Korea, where it was exhibited for public viewing for five months. He has helped in setting up museums in Jammu and Himachal Pradesh also.