Journey to Merak Sakten - A home to Semi Nomadic People in Eatsern Bhutan.

There are two fascinating villages in north eastern Bhutan, which were closed to tourist until 2009. It was closed for the tourist out of the concern for their unique culture and traditions of the people living there. The culture and tradition of the people living there are different in many ways and respects from rest of the Bhutanese people. They have a very rich culture heritage. They live on animals like yaks, sheep, cows and horses. They move from place to place with animals with the change of seasons. They are known as ‘Brogpas’, which means ‘herdsmen’ or they are semi-nomadic tribesmen. Apart from the ‘Brokpas’, we belief it is also the home to the Yetis, which is known as ‘migoi’ in our language. There is a wildlife sanctuary called ‘Sakteng Wild Life Sanctuary’. These two villages are called ‘Merak & Sakteng’.

The origin of these two villages or people in these villages is from Tibet. Surprisingly ‘Brokpas’ possess a written document which reveals us their true origin. This document is called ‘ Ama Jomo’s Namther’. Which basically accounts the lives of two people who founded these two fascinating villages: Ama Jomo and Lama Jarapa.

In the ‘Brokpa’ society the polygamy and polyandry is acceptable. Fraternal polyandry, in which several brothers share one wife, is common and generally preferred to monogamy. The reason for sharing one wife is to preserve family property intact. And also it is very convenient to their way of life-while the women works at home looking after the house hold chores, husbands can do different things – like while one husband looks after the Yaks, the other can do the trade and so on. In olden days, even in the lower regions, people belief that ‘lager the family, richer the family is’. With large family, we have sufficient man power to do what ever the family needs and there is no need to hire the outsiders which is an extra expense to the family.

People of these two villages wear distinctive clothing and head gear and it is the unique aspect of their culture. Their dresses are made from the animal products-like Yak hair, skin and so on. We will not find such distinctive dress worn by the people other than them in Bhutan. We can easily recognize them by their animal skin and yak hair clothing and unusual hats called ‘shamo’-which has hang spider-like legs that act as rainspouts.

‘Brokpas’ migrate to the lower region during the winter with their animals. They move with their animals and the whole family. They live in huts or open space or tents. This is the season where they do the battering with the people of lower regions-which known as ‘Sharchop’. Products such as butter, dried cheese (Zoetoe), homespun blankets and so on are battered with rice, corn, chillis and other items. Now the trend is slowly changing. They sell their products to the shops and with the money they buy from the shops what ever they need. They even go to Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh to sell their products.

Generally people in these villages are very friendly like other Bhutanese. They like to drink a lot and they always give a good hospitality to any guest. They also like singing and dancing. They are very happy people on this Earth. But as the country develops and changes they are also subject to change and it is slowly changing now-their culture, traditions and their way of life!

In doing this trek, we will be able to explore ourselves their indigenous culture of this tribesmen, not only having seen them personally. Come and visit before it is too late to see their indigenous culture and traditions and fascinating people on this earth.