Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav Sangrahalaya organised another chapter of its popular series, Museum Popular lecture on Friday at Rock Art Centre Conference Hall. Tsewang Dorjee, Scholar, Department of Anthropology, Rajiv Gandhi University, Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh, spoke on ‘Brokpas of Arunachal Pradesh’.
The lecture was chaired by Prof Sarit Kumar Chaudhuri (Director, IGRMS). On this occasion, Prof Chaudhuri presented the introduction of Dorjee and introduced Brokpas in brief.
Dorjee commenced his lecture by introducing the pastoral community, Brokpas. He informed that Yaks are being raised by along with the border of West Kameng and Tawang districts mainly between elevations of 9750 ft to 14625 ft above sea level by Brokpas. Brokpas are the transhumance pastoralist of Monpa tribe, whose profession and livelihood is dependent on yak rearing and use resources like high mountain pastures.
He explained the difficult life of Brokpas, who spends hardly 2-3 months in the valley rest of the year on the high altitude areas for proper grazing by Yaks. In winters they prepare cheese, butter and Ghee from the milk and sell it. The polyandry system is also visible at some places. They dedicate their ground floor of their houses for the fodder for the cattle. While up on the high altitudes, they make temporary houses of bamboo during the grazing season.
The decision for movement is decided by the village leader with the support of community members, play an important role in the regulation of the seasonal use of pastures.The decision for movement is either decided by village head (Gaon Burah) in case of Jang Brokpa. Secretary, in case of Thingbu Brokpa of their community because in Thingbu the cultivation of crop is not suitable, due to this reason they have taken pastoralism as their livelihood activities.