I met an old lady in the village Bomdo this time who has walked to Tibet, which is only 50 km beeline distance but takes more than a week to reach on foot!
She along with fifteen others walked for 12 days to reach what they call ‘Mimet’ around the year 1950. The walk was mainly for bringing back salt although various other barters would take place, I have listed here a few based on the information from her. Rice and rice beer were exchanged for wheat powder or salt. The exchange rate was pretty simple; 1 cup rice beer fetches a fistful of wheat powder or a cup of salt. Various other things that were exchanged were bamboo combs and other artefacts and ginger for Dao (a knife), wool and certain fruits. The old lady, who is actually my field guide Gekut's mother very enthusiastically brought a spin that is at least 60 years old and posed for the picture to depict how they extract thread to weave clothes.
Other interesting facts were that people with heavy bags were invited to rich homes whereas people with lighter bags were invited to poor homes. Naturally, people carried a lot of weight and she told me people would carry 50–60 kg of goods! The other strange thing about the trip is that people who pass away on the way are not brought back owing to the logistics. She also mentioned that throughout the journey the group is happily singing and walking.
So, basically people from Bomdo village were walking at least a distance of 150 km, including up and downhill, through tough terrain full of forests and snow near the Indo-Tibet border to bring back salt and knives. I already knew that Adi people are physically tough but now I just think they are incredible! I have also learnt from this to savour basic amenities such as salt, spices, knives, and other such items that I usually take for granted.
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