The Drogpa are a Dardic Indo-Aryan speaking tribe from Ladakh. They speak Broksat which belongs to the Shina subgroup of Dardic and they call themselves “Minaro” which means ‘Aryan’. Minaro people (calling them by their endonym) seem to have been regular Shina Indo-Aryans who came under Tibeto-Burman influence and adopted some Buddhist practices.
Most of them practice their traditional Indo-Aryan religion mixed with Buddhism. Regardless, one thing I noticed is the similarities with the Kalash in how obsessed they are with ritual impurity.
They have a three tier caste-system of priests, cultivators and artisans, and do practice ‘caste endogamy’.
society unlike other Dard communities. However they have three castes like division-priests, cultivators and artisans. The artisans’ castes include-Garra (blacksmiths), and Shinkan (carpenters). Anybody can be a musician or play musical instruments. Musicians here enjoy respect, because they do not belong to Mon class as in other parts of Ladakh. They do not constitute a separate class in society as Mons or Bedas in Ladakh or Doms in Gilgit. Brokpa play Dang-Dang (Brass Drum). In Dah-Bema, out of 73 households, five households are of Garras and five house- holds of Shinkan.
Marriages are not permissible between cultivators and Garras because of low- status of blacksmiths. Buddhists associate iron and steel with material used for making weapons for taking life. This has led to the relegation of the metalworkers to the lowest of the quasicastes. The low-status of the blacksmiths continues to persist here. In case of intercaste marriage, there is lot of protest; however, there are no social sanctions to prevent it. The lower caste may take wives from the higher, but not vice-versa (except in case of priests). Consequently, married daught- ers in intercaste marriage cannot enter their parental house. After three generations of marriages with the higher caste, the progeny can have normal social relations with the parental house.
Brokpa cremate their dead like other Hindus.
They believe the water gods and earth mother can be upset if they do ritually impure things or violate certain rules, and withold water hence drying up their crops, so they perform animal sacrifices and burn sacred juniper on their altars to appease the Gods.
Their main harvest festival is Bononah and it lasts five days. They sing Dard songs, which narrate their belief that in the primordial past, the Gods and humans lived together. Their ancestors danced with the Gods who migrated with them to the mountain pastures.