Women as custodians of Monpa heritage

The Monpa community in western Arunachal Pradesh is reviving its craft traditions and ploughing the surplus income into wildlife, habitat and heritage conservation

- Avantika Bhuyan

On a recent Saturday afternoon, the top floor of the Kunj, a craft and heritage space in Delhi, was abuzz with activity. The spacious sunlit events area had been transformed into a Monpa homestead from the Chug Valley, complete with yak-shearing tools, and a churner to make chhurpi (yak-milk cheese), typical to this agro-pastoralist community from western Arunachal Pradesh.

Four women—Dorjee Lhamu, Leiki Chomu, Tsering Lhamu and Rinchin Jomba—from Damu's Heritage Dine, a community tourism venture, prepared ingredients for the popup organised by World Wildlife Fund India. They chatted with guests as they readied litho, or Asian pear, water celery, buckwheat noodles, phurshing gombu and organic red rajma. Especially interesting was the phurshing gombu, or cornflour tart filled with oleo-resins sourced from the Chinese lacquer tree. Chomu and Jomba explained that touching the tree or its sap can trigger severe allergic reactions. Only one elder in the village has the skills to harvest the resin correctly, making the dish a real speciality.

Dressed in traditional shinka todung, the women served stories like these along with puttang khazi or buckwheat noodles, and an orange salad with pickled radish. The meal, part of a series of popups across Delhi, was not just an introduction to the exquisite Monpa cuisine but also to a fast-fading way of indigenous living.