Drokpas - The Lost Tribe

Brogpa, Drokpa or Dard people are an ethnic group living in Ladakh. They live in the district of Leh and Kargil in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. The Dard people of Dha and Hanu are nominally Buddhist but also worship their own animist pantheon of gods. They have an Indo-European appearance in contrast to the predominant Tibeto-Mongol inhabitants of most of Ladakh. The villages of Drokpas got divided when Ladakh was seperated into Leh and Kargil districts in 1978. While Garkhun and Darchik now fall under the administrative control of Kargil, Dha and Hanu come under Leh. The Drokpas claim they migrated from Gilgit and the migration ended in Ganex passing through the various destinations of Tirmukh, Rome-Skardu, Kareix, Sixaur, Parkuta, Shigar and Gavis. Interestingly, the story of Drokpa villages revolves around three brothers, Dulo, Melo and Galo, who earlier settled in Dha and later in Garkhun, Darchik and Hanu. Tashi Tsering, a village elder from Garkhun tells, "There are interesting tales behind the naming of each Drokpa village. Dha originated when Dulo shot an arrow from a hillock. Water sprang from the point where the arrow hit. The village was called Dha because Dha in Drokpan language means arrow.