Mountain spirits of Spiti

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0:51Dr Jane Orton:The Documentary, home of the best documentaries from the BBC World Service.

1:06In Sagnan village, in India's Spiti Valley in the vast Himalayas, Devi Dekit performs a Gelshung, a story about good and evil. It's a story woven to entertain families at bedtime, when they're trapped indoors by Spiti's long, harsh winters. The story can stretch over three nights.

1:33Devi learnt songs like these from her mother. She's one of the very few people who still knows them. The valley is changing. Its isolation is coming to an end. Mobile phones, the internet and tourism are connecting the world's highest mountain range to the rest of the world. But oral traditions, like singing the Gyalsheng, are becoming harder to pass on. Traditional beliefs are disappearing.

2:04I'm Jane Orton, and you're listening to Mountain Spirits of Spiti. I'm a folklorist, and over ten years, I've been visiting Spiti Valley, collecting their stories and songs, documenting a dying tradition.

2:23I am Lama Trashinamjian. I am now across the 60th place. Lama Tashi Namgyal is a monk in Ki Monastery, the largest of five monasteries in Spiti Valley. Spiti is a very remote place, not connected to any other world. Spiti is very calm and quiet. Before, 10 years ago, 20 years ago, now a big change is coming. When I first started visiting Spiti in 2015, it took three days to get to the main town of Kaza. It involved an overnight bus journey from Delhi, followed by a day-long minivan ride. Khaza is over 12 ,000 feet above sea level, and it's usually where people start noticing the altitude. Some people find it hard to breathe.

3:13Spiti Valley is heartbreakingly beautiful. Dramatic sweeping views across the valley, sharp mountain edges, and huge drops when you look down. And of course, it's home to the elusive snow leopard. As I got to know people, it became almost impossible for me to walk down the street without being called in to drink tea. And over many, many cups of tea, people told me stories about their beliefs. In Spiti, there are many Laa, and each Laa has its own sonam or luck. If you perform good deeds, whether you are a la or a human, everyone receives the result of their own karma. This is Punchuk Namghal. He's in his 80s now and he's from Kibber village.

4:03Kibber is 18 kilometers from Gaza. Its altitude is a heady 14 ,000 feet. Punchuk is talking about la. It's not a word with a direct translation into English. Some local people translate la as spirit or god or deity. When Tibetan Buddhism came to the Himalayas, local beliefs in Lhaz were integrated into the new religion. Instead of getting rid of them, they were recruited into protecting the teachings of Buddhism. The Lhaz has the power to curse and to cure the cursed person, but he does not have the power to provide spiritual comfort or peace. He can tell where the curse came from and how one can be protected from it.

4:55According to our religion, La is our guardian who will help us to learn how to live. This is Dorje Namgal. He's also from Kibber. And there are different kinds of La. One is Yulla, which means village La, or protector spirits who can only help here. and he is just a Yiddha who can only help us live in this world, but he cannot give us spiritual enlightenment or an afterlife. He will help us if we ask, but he cannot go further than the afterlife. If he tries to help us in the afterlife, then he will take refuge in the Buddha and disappear. That's what Lah is. And some people can also receive Lhaz into their bodies, and they're called Luya.

5:45Dr Jane Orton:The liver also can see the dead bodies, dead men or dead living beings souls. Yeah, he also can see. Lhas are central to local rituals and are often credited with powers like the ability to heal others. But a la can only enter into people who are paramomo, a word that means to have fear. If you don't have fear, you're considered Paratumbo. But loya are increasingly hard to find. In nearby Chicham village, there is no one who can receive Tamchan, the Chicham la. Chopal Tandup, the caretaker of the Chicham temple, tells me why.

6:32Earlier, many people had Paramamo, so the la used to possess many people. But nowadays people have paratenbo, so the la cannot enter them, and they can't see ghosts or spirits. That's the difference.

6:50This was also explained to me by two elderly women, Chetup Sangmo and Dharmabuti, in Kibber.

6:58Dr Jane Orton:If he doesn't find any medium, then he will stay in his realm, in a state of meditation. he is unable to manifest or appear. My interpreter Tashi elaborated further. There is a tamjin, but he doesn't have a body, so he comes inside the kibur's las body. Then he tells people that I don't have any body, so I'm lending his body. And in Spiti, people can call on these las for help. My paternal grandfather is Allah himself. He took the law into his body. I am Sonam Yangsam and I come from Spiti Valley. I am 25 years old and in terms of interests, I have a keen interest for reading, hiking and also recording oral folklore traditions and oral narratives.

7:59I have very vivid memories of my childhood, getting dressed in that white robe that the La wears. And then people used to come to him a lot to consult him and ask him the reasons of the illnesses that they have. I myself was taken once to La by my family for some illness that I had. La's also provide physical protection. Lobzang Chepal is an architect who trained as a monk. Once bandits came to rob Ki Monastery. In our Ki Monastery, there is a lah called Kando Shuyang Shansomba. At that time, there were not many monks there, only a few monks. There was a Sanpa who was a conure or caretaker of Ki Monastery.

8:48When the Sanpa found them, he took a gun and pointed at them from the top of the monastery and called upon the Kando Shuyang. And the kandu is powerful. The gun was pointed at the bandit leader, Mango, and the leader got shot. After that, all the bandits ran away. Even now, their guns and weapons are still in the key monastery. Oh, I didn't know that. I see. So it's kind of teamwork between the technology of the guns and the deity. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, interesting. Life without snow in Spiti is impossible. Drinking water, bathing water, the harvest, all depend on snow. To ensure a good snowfall, local people use prayers and rituals called pujas.

9:46I remember visiting Comic Monastery with a friend one January to see a puja for snow, and he was telling me that they should have already had snowfall by that time. I asked him what happens in the years when there's already snowfall and it's time to do the puja. And he said we ask for more. You can never have enough snow.

10:09So we have a lot of water springs around our village. It was said that near those water springs you cannot pee or you cannot make a mess or pollute those areas. because otherwise you will get punishment from the water law and then you will get, you know, bumps on your skin, pimples or like chicken pox. So it's more like how ideas and measures to protect the environment are linked with, you know, personifying them and kind of spreading a fear. Nobody would like dare flout those rules, you know.

10:48The Lars aren't the only invisible entities in Spiti's hidden landscape. In many villages, I heard about Balutu Kangbu, a wish-granting figure. He's only one foot tall with a one foot tall stick and a one foot tall hat. If you take his stick and his hat, he must grant you wishes, but he has the strength of a bear. In some villages, they say that only people who are paramomo, those who have fear, get to see him. In Chichen village, Lobsang Dalma explains that a woman managed to take Baloo's cap and stick and made him work for her. Baloo managed to escape through trickery.

11:31When spring season came, the family went to the field. They forgot their whip, so they asked Bhalu to bring it. There was a grandmother who couldn't see well. So Bhalu asked, could you lift me up? We forgot to take the whip, so she lifted him. And then he took his stick and cap and ran away.

11:59And in Key Village, in the old people's home, Gatuk tells me that. Balu Tukhangbu used to go everywhere and he has extra flesh on his legs. If we press on that, then he can't go anywhere and sit there. And if we can't press it, then he will run away and hide. If we capture him, then he will ask, what do you want, money or long life? If we say long life, then he will grant it. And if I say, I want money, then he will give us money.

12:40In Spiti, some people believe that those who are paramomo can not only receive Dala and see Baloo, but they can also see Biul, hidden lands that most people cannot see.

12:54There were some bushes over the ridge and houses could be seen from a distance, but when we go closer, they are no longer visible. We can see it from far, from Thakdom near Ronglong. No one has ever been there. We can't go over that mountain.

13:21Chicham, Demiul and even the Mane villages were once biul. So inside of, in a biul, is it like ordinary people and ordinary houses or is it normal life? like here? Yes, they are the same as us. They have houses and live the same way as we do. The only thing is that they don't have salt.

13:51People also told me about the La Bay, a kind of la that hides people. Dolma Beauty and Jetup Sangmo remember the La Bay taking someone in their village.

14:05Once she hid herself, then the larvae hid her and people couldn't find her. She was offered sausages and fire as well. And even if that person is sitting here, people who are searching for her cannot see her. I don't know the reason behind it, but I think La hides people away because of a person's karma. But for Dorje Namgau, the larbe carries a different meaning for him. As for the larbe, it also happened to me. In that larbe, we aren't hidden. But we feel scared and want to be hidden. And also we feel sad when people say they can't see us. It's not that they can't see us, but it's about the timing of the people searching When they were searching for me here, then I would hide there.

15:00And when they come to find me there then, I will hide myself again. That's when people thought Larbe kept me hidden.

15:13But the majority of people you've heard from so far are getting old. These stories and the firm beliefs and the deities who drive them, they stretch back generations. but it's getting harder to see their future. And what about your generation? Are they interested in these stories as well? I think the interest is slowly dying down. These narratives are what give you that rootedness, right? To a place, a sense of belonging. I don't think people are that much interested to preserve. The local people are not that much interested, the younger generation. This is Mountain Spirits of Spitty from the BBC World Service.

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17:04You're listening to the documentary from the BBC World Service. I'm Jane Orton. Has Spiti changed a lot since you grew up? When you grow up, what has changed in Spiti?

17:22Dr Jane Orton:Everything.

17:26That means everything has changed. When I first came to Spiti in 2015, to go from Kibba to Chicham, I had to climb into a metal basket on a pulley system to cross a very deep gorge. I dreaded the basket, although old ladies would happily pull themselves across with their shopping. Now there is a bridge to Chicham, famous for its altitude, where tourists stop to take photographs. I asked what Dolma Bhuti, one of the elderly women, thought about having mobile phones now. It is a good thing. We can see a lot of videos and we get news from all over. For me, I don't know how to use it. so my son shows me some dancing videos and other videos and it is so good from the youngest to the oldest they now have phones and in old times in plowing season people used to scream and shout to call each other for lunch and other things now they have phones so it is really easy

18:37Dr Jane Orton:Is it disturbing you? Like, it's okay? No, this is fine. Thank you for agreeing to the recording. What's your name, please? My name is Kalzang. Kalzang Sering. I am 31 years old. So you were telling me that you worked as a snow leopard spotter? Yeah. Actually, last year I went there as a porter. So there were some foreigners, like from France, Italy, like this thing. Kauzang told me about Allah, who famously takes offence to music from a neighbouring place, Kinore. It is a very deep story. Like if you start playing the song of Kinore in that valley, so automatically something bad happens to us.

19:19Dr Jane Orton:Like if you are going through a vehicle, you start getting punctured. One of my friends, he's in the army. He went to a function, like a marriage ceremony there. so when he was coming he was playing a loud music of that Kenori song so when he was coming his tire got punctured like not even a single like two tires got punctured

19:46Everyone agrees that you should not play Kenori music in Losar and Hansa even people who are a bit sceptical about other local stories A friend of mine was in Losar, having a party after a cricket match in Hansa. They completely forgot this rule and started playing Kenori music on their mobile phones. Their phones froze until morning. To me, this is one of the most interesting aspects of technology's arrival in Spiti. Even though technology is new, the Lars still interact with it.

20:17Dr Jane Orton:Her name is Tashi Doma and she's a 55 year old. So the song she is about to elaborate is on how the monasteries are built.

20:58Dr Jane Orton:SONG PLAYS

21:20So, I'mção. Even right now, thinking about the already lost repository that is there, we've already lost so much because my grandmother, she is like a repository of those stories. Not just the bedtime stories, but just the oral narratives. She knows a lot of oral folk songs, which are not written and recorded anywhere. Like when I go and meet her, I sometimes tell her to tell me those stories. I also record the songs on my diary and on my phone. Sometimes I am also not able to understand particular words that she uses when she is narrating those stories. And she also fails to explain me what those mean.

22:03So you can also see how language loss is also happening.