Story of Dukpas: the
Deprived Tribes of Dooars
-Subhrajit Roy
“In its simplest form the tribe is a group of bands occupying a
continuous territory and having a feeling of unity deriving from numerous
similarities in culture and certain community of interests.”
-Ralph
Linton
Tribe has been defined as a group of indigenous
people having common name, language and territory tied by kinship bonds,
practising endogamy, having distinct customs, rituals and beliefs etc. But the
definition is not sufficient to describe the tribes as we find lot of variations and life styles of different tribes. The
Drugpa, also called as Dukpa is a rare kind of tribes, inhibit majorly the
hilly terrain of North Bengal as well as Bhutan and Sikkim. In North Bengal the
area inhabited by the community is a hilly terrain covered with thin forest of
Buxaduar , Chunabhati, Tasigaon, Lepchokha and Adma. All of these are high
altitude villages (more than 2000ft).
The Dukpas are basically
mongoloid. With the coming of 16th Gyalwa Kormapa, the spiritual
head of the Kurma Kagvu order, a large number of Bhutanese had migrated into
the Sikkim, in the early 1960s. Bhutanese called themselves ‘Drugpa’, or the
resident of Dragon Land (Drug mean Dragon and Pa means resident). The total
number of Urukpas who came, are mostly from different parts of Bhutan. A few of
them came from the Kalimpong-Darjeeling areas, where their ancestors had
settled from early seventh century AD.
The language of the
Dukpas is named as ‘Lhoke’. At home among
the kin groups they also speak Nepali, while with others Nepali and Hindi are
in use with only a very few speaking English.
The Dukpas are also
known as Bhutia and Bhutanese and divide into small clans, viz. (i) Shenga Guru
(ii) Parop (iii) Sarchongpa (iv) Suchab (v) Shab and (vi) Smabob . The Dukpas
belong to the ‘ bhaku Cyud’ Karmapa
group of Tibetan Buddhism. They search their pedigree from the Sarchhog people
of eastern Bhutan.
Most of the Dukpas are
engaged in agriculture. The chief corps are rice, gin, cardamom, maize and
millets. Almost every Dukpa owns land which serves their primary resource. The
family head controls the land. The secondary occupations of the community
include small-scale animal husbandry. There is pig, goat and fowl in every
house. The products are marketed, either
directly or through middleman.
The Dukpas are non
vegetarian. They like to eat pork, beef, chicken and mutton. Very poor families
take buffalo meat. The staple food of Dukpas is rice, but some have taken to
chapatis. Generally their food is prepared very hot with lots of green and red
chillies. They like to take pulses like urad,
moong, masur and masem. The habit of consuming alcohol regularly is very
common among the Dukpa men. Women take alcohol only on special occasions.
Smoking bidi, taking loose tobacco is
also very common.
The dress of the Dukpa
male and female are known as pho-kho
and kho-kho respectively. The dresses
are mainly hand-woven. The pho-kho is
worn to a little below the knees, with long sleeves; the kho-kho is worn down to ankle length without sleeves. The kho-kho is a shawl type dress and is
worn with the help of a brooch (khow).
They use a sash (kera), to fasten the
dress a little above the waist line. A kind of pocket is formed in the upper
part of the dress. The Dukpa males wear a white handloomed shawl, called kabhi and the females wear khatri, coloured handloomed ones.
The family pattern of
Dukpa community is patriarchal by nature, but mothers also play an important
role in the family. But women’s status in social and religious rituals is at
low level. Women are usually responsible for all household responsibilities.
The marriage in Dukpa
community is preferred to be arranged within the community. But there are
examples of marriages with other communities also(especially with Nepalis). The
parents generally take part in marriage and is usually conducted through negotiations.
But nowadays the practice of marriage by negotiations is declining, as both the
men and women tend to find their partners through courtship. The age for
marriage is now usually between 18 and 22 for men. The sign of a married woman
is coloured apron, which is known as pangden,
is tied at the waist line on the top of the po-kho
and hangs down the knee. The newly married couple usually stays at the parental
house of the groom, but there is growing tendency for neo-local arrangements
due to several reasons, also including social and economic aspects.
Divorce is also not much
difficult for Dukpas. The reasons for divorce include infidelity or a mutual
desire to be separated. Both the divorces can remarry.
The Dukpas are mainly
Buddhist. The Lama ( priest-monk) plays significant role in their rites rituals
and religious ceremonies. The name-giving ceremony of a newly born baby is
conducted by the Lama after the third, fifth or eleventh day after the birth of
child.
The death rituals of
Dukpas are followed very strictly. They believe in reincarnation. A priest is
appointed for performing the rituals for the dead. Such priest is known Pho-Bo. An astrologer-Lama, known as Tsi-Pa is engaged to cast a death
horoscope, proper methodical way of disposing the corpse, the time and manner
of the funeral and the kind of rites and rituals to be performed for the
benefit of the deported spirit. After that the dead body is tied up to a
sitting posture (the embryonic posture), symbolical of being born out of this
life into the life beyond death. After the funeral, the Lama revisits the house
of the deceased, once a week, until the forty-ninth day. But these days due to
economic and other constraints the period of forty nine days has been shortened
to twenty one days. On the completion of first year death, a yearly ceremony is
held. It is called Ski-Due. The
Dukpas erect prayer flags (darchog),
attached to a bamboo pole, in the manner of the Tibetans and Sikkimese in
Sikkim, on occasions of death, Losar etc. Dukpas spend a big amount of their
income when a death strikes a family, just like the Tibetans.
The main festivals of
the Dukpa people are the Nimbo, the Sonam Losar, the Lossong, the Sagadawa etc.
The Sonam Losar is basically correlated with the harvest and is known as the
peasant’s New Year. Tibetan New Year or the Gewa Lossar is celebrated between
February – March every year. The Sgadawa is celebrated for one month in the
fourth month of the Tibetan calendar. It is believed to be very auspicious
month. The fifteenth day of the Tibetan fourth month (the full moon day) is
most importantly celebrated by this community, as the Sakyamuni Buddha was born,
attained Buddhahood achieved Maha Pari Nirvana on this day. The Dukpas
celebrate each festival with song, dance and archery. Dance is called ‘Sekta’ in their language. Males and
females dance with the rhythm of the songs.
The Dukpas have great
skill in wood-carving, carpentry, weaving etc from ancient times. But these
arts are declining rapidly with a diminishing market. The Dukpa community has a
rich tradition of multitudinous folk tales. But currently it is observed that
the community has forgotten most of its folklore and folksongs.
Like the Tibetans in Sikkim,
the Dukpas have formed the organization Kyi-dug
to look after the welfare of the community. This is an independent regional
body. Its members have some moral duties and responsibilities. The organization
Kyi-dug always stands beside the
people of the community in their time of need. Each family has to pay a certain
amount of money to Kyi-dug as
subscription at proper interval.
The houses of Dukpa
Community are primarily constructed by wood and corrugated tin. The rooms are
quite smaller in size. The Dukpas are generally very well behaved while serving
guests. They entertain the guests with salted tea (‘Nimkin’) and ‘Chhang’. ‘Chhang’ is home made light alcohol
drink.
Although the Dukpas are
primarily Buddhist community, some of them have transformed to Christianity,
especially in Adma area. A Christian missionary organization, Himalayan
Christian Church is playing the pivotal role in religion conversion. The Dukpas
are attracted to Christianity to avail some facilities from Christian community
and leaving their own religion and identity. The residential areas of the
Dukpas are so remote and inaccessible that they are deprived of almost all
sorts of basic amenities like education, sanitation, health assistance and pure
drinking water. The hospital and other medical facilities are often
unapproachable to the Dukpas inhabiting the high and remote areas.
Subsequently, they are still largely dependent on the traditional medicine-men
and oracles. The most common diseases are stomach ailments from high mineral
content in the drinking water, excessive consumption of badly cooked meat and
chillies, chest diseases especially TB and skin disease. They also suffer from
severe malnutrition. The mortality rate among the infants and children is also
very high. This is mainly because they do not understand the importance and
necessity of personal hygiene.
There are so many tribal
communities in Indian subcontinent. But the Dupka community is only politically
and geographically connected to India. They are still isolated from the main
stream society and culture of our country. There are large numbers of
anthropologists who are working on different tribal communities in India, but
it is really surprising that very few of them have clear idea about the Dukpas
of Buxa. Very limited efforts and activities are seen regarding the development
of the Dukpas. Buxa, with its flora and fauna as well as immense natural beauty,
is first turning out to be a popular tourist destination. But it needs much
more improvements to attract large number of tourists. The Dukpa community
could largely be benefited from tourism. Dukpas could easily find employment
opportunities as guides and porters for the tourists who visited the region.
Buxa is wonderful place for its natural beauty, but the communication and
transportation must be improved. It needs good road conditions to attract
tourists. The forest department should take initiatives to develop the area
because the land, inhabited by the community, is within the Buxa Tiger Reserve
over which the forest department has its jurisdiction. The Border Area
Development Programme (BADP) should also take necessary programmes and agendas
to ensure the overall development of the area.
The Dukpas of Dooars are
already secluded from the main stream networks of social relations and cultural
communications of the centre of civilization. The Central Government as well as
State Government must immediately implement schemes and programmes for the
development of the Dukpas, lest the community will have to continue its
struggle to survive.
_________________________ The End___________________________
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