News Pure Aryan swastika-worshipper tribes, vegan for 5,000 years

[Second Summer]

They live in the Indian Himalayan region where they hug trees, practise polygamy and polyandry, and have prohibitions on alcohol, felling trees and marrying non-Aryans:

There are about 1,000 descendants of the Aryan tribes and they live scattered around Gilgit, Hunza, Kargil and Leh. Being nature worshippers, they celebrate the Bononah (nature) festival and are strict vegans, which means they are not only strictly vegetarian but also don't consume milk or milk products. This minuscule community bars both men and women from marrying non-Aryans, and polygamy and polyandry is common. Couples who do not conceive are free to choose other partners to give them a better chance of producing an offspring. Nearly 80 per cent of them marry in their own villages, while 20 per cent marry from neighbouring villages.

Two 500-year-old Juniper trees (Cilgi Deuha) crown the village of Dah, which is the venue of the tri-annual Bononah festival (held on a full moon night during October). The tribes symbolically draw energy from the ancient Juniper trees by hugging them after a ceremonial dance. They also worship the swastika symbol (clockwise) and the `Om' (symbolising energy).

Their striking features include blue eyes, aristocratic noses, fair complexion and flawless skin. They appear ethnically distinct from Ladakhis or Kashmiris. They do not marry outsiders and restrict their contact with the outside world, seemingly happy in their isolated existence. Married women braid their hair, which gives them a resemblance to Greeks. One of the women photographed at Dah could have easily been mistaken for a German tourist. She was blonde and had high cheekbones, rotund face and unmistakable German features.

More: A secret the Himalayas hold (original article from print edition of January 7, 2005)

 

[Amy SF]

Curious about something unrelated to their diet: If they've spent 5,000 years interbreeding with each other, I can just imagine the health and genetic issues they must have. I'll bet scientists are loving the idea of studying them for that reason.

 

[Moll Flanders]

I remember reading about that when I first went vegan a decade ago!