Wine Making Sessions Or Song & Dance Rituals With The Brokpas: Experience The Off-beat On This Trip To Ladakh

Little Local – a travel enterprise that partners with local communities is organising a trip to the Brokpa tribe’s village in Ladakh where travellers were not allowed to venture until five years ago. The Brokpa tribe is supposedly the last and purest surviving Aryan race who worship the Sun God and visitors will have the opportunity to partake in their harvest festival – Bonana, celebrated every October.

Little Local is an agency that helps travellers experience the best of any destination like a local, so one can expect accommodation at homestays {the village, in this case}, partaking in the festivities with the native people and hands-on local experiences such as wine-making, song and dance rituals and more activities exclusive only to a particular place.

On this Bonana Festival Trip to Ladakh, people will have the chance to experience the culture of the Brokpa tribe that claims to be the direct lineage of the long-lost army of Alexander the Great. Very little is known about this tribe that lives in isolation in the remote valleys along river Indus. A very important aspect of the Brokpa Tribe’s culture is the harvest festival of Bonana when they thank their deities for a fruitful harvest. As a part of the festival, the local monk spends a week in isolation on top of a hill where he prays for a week, after which, the villagers go up to bring him down believing that the deities also come back with the community for the festivities.

As a part of the trip, travellers will explore the Leh Old Town and Kargil Markets, they’ll visit the Hunderman village which has been transformed into a heritage museum and partake in the festivities of the Brokpa tribe. The itinerary also includes a workshop on local wine-making, a bonfire party and a day trip to Pangong Tso. Since Little Local focuses on providing immersive local experiences, the travellers are in for a treat as they’ll also enjoy the local harvest fare.

If you’ve been stuck in the city for way too long, this trip could offer the perfect break from it all as you’d be traversing through the Himalayas, lost in the rich culture of the Brokpas and the fact that you’d have limited access to internet is only a great way to detox and unwind like never before.

It’s not everyday that one has the opportunity to explore offbeat places and learn more about native tribes, so we suggest that you make the most of it.

When: Sept 30 – Oct 8

Price: INR 39,999 {includes accommodation, transit, meals, activities and excludes air fare}.

Book here.

We’re told that Delhi folks can avail discounts on flight tickets, so be sure to check with the peeps at Little Local.