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Sakten (Sakteng): Leaving the cold behind
Sakten village
Smoke rises from few of the houses clustered in the gently sloping valley, cupped by hills on all sides. On the dry sallow slopes above the valley, yaks graze, their harness bells softy breaking the silence.

Sakten, Trashigang dzongkhag's northernmost geog and home of the Brokpas, a nomadic community, looks deserted.

Except for a few elderly people of the community, the young and fit have locked their shingled roofed stone houses and, as is customary every winter, migrated to the warmer valleys with their cattle and food stock.

According to dungkhag officials, Sakten has about 300 households and a population of about 1,500 people. But during winter less than 100 people live in the settlement of closely clustered houses that have just enough space in-between for people and cattle to pass through.

"Most families who don't have much property lock their houses and leave early to look for a place in the lowlands while a few well off ones keep some old men and women to look after their houses," said the Sakten Mangi ap Sangay Dorji. "The wealthy families give the caretaker rice and money when they return," he said.

The few who stay home throughout the year are normally those who are too old to walk, the shopkeepers and the dungkhag officials who stay back to keep the office running.

The students in Namgaychholing lobdra, the only Buddhist school in Sakten, which educates and provides food and shelter to many poor Merak and Sakten orphans also stay back.

Since nothing grows in winter the few people staying in Sakten don't have much work to do. As night falls, most residents retire to bed by seven pm. "All people do, is fetch firewood, water and drink ara all day," said Tshokpa Dorji. "We survive on potatoes, radish, spinach and khali (millet) that we grow in summers."

Brokpa people

Many Saktenpas save khali for the winter months because it can be grounded into powder to make local bread and local brew, the most popular diet in winter. "Khali is normally sown in April when Saktenpas return home and is harvested in August before they migrate," Tshokpa Dorji said. "But there are not many villagers who can produce khali in abundance since it requires a lot of hard work.

Neither is there butter nor cheese to sell as most of the cattle are in the lower valleys. "Zeydey or fermented cheese is the most popular product people buy at this time," said Tshokpa Dorji.

The migrants have their own selected places in the lower valleys. Some groups go down to Khelphug, some to Shingkharong, which is beyond Merak, and others go to Thongrung in Phongmey.

The nomads usually stay with their cattle in these places selling their products in exchange for rice and other necessities like chillies, salt, sugar and kerosene. The poorer ones with fewer cattle do other odd jobs in the towns like working on roadsides for a daily wage of Nu.100. "The cattle are let free in the wilderness to graze while the men spend time in carpentry and fetching fire wood and the women milk the cattle and spin wool," said Mangi Ap Dorji Sangay.

Women usually engage themselves in weaving their traditional woollen dress. They also milk the yak and the cheese they get from it is stored in hardened leather bags for fermentation.

Before snowfall, Saktenpas normally frequent Trashigang town during November and December, to restock their ration for the cold winter months, which lasts for three months. "After the snowfall the route gets covered with snow and ice and we cannot move south," said Dema a Sakten resident. "We barter our cheese and butter for rice. We also buy rice for our own consumption and eat it sparingly."

Besides Trashigang, the Brokpas also go to Tawang (border town of India), which is located to the west of Sakten to sell the yak products in return for clothes and other food items. According to a shopkeeper it is easier to hike up to Tawang than Trashigang. "It takes just a day to reach Tawang with horses while it takes about three days to reach Trashigang," said the shopkeeper.

Merak which lies to the south of Sakten is also home to the Brokpa community and is a full day walk from Sakten on the opposite hill.

Contributed by Samten Wangchuk, Kuensel

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