Short oral history of Rongpa language and culture by native speaker
Namaste.
What is your name?
My name is Kamla Negi
When and where were you born?
I was born in Badrinath in 1976
What is your language?
Our language is Rongpa.
We belong to Bhotiya tribe.
Tell us about your family and your
family's financial situation.
We are 5 siblings. My father died very
early so our condition was not good.
My mother faced many obstacles raising us
Have you gone to school?
Yes. In our time there were no schools
We used to study in open.
Slowly schools have been made but there
are no children to study in those
buildings. Now they are all empty
Then I went to college. I studied in
Gopeshwar. Both middle school and above
and college were in Gopeshwar.
We rented a room there to study.
I have done MA Economics.
What religion do people follow
in your village?
We all follow Hinduism.
What festivals are celebrated
in your community?
We don't have any special festivals but
we celebrate all festivals
from Hindu religion.
Fulaari is a festival celebrated in
Garhwal region. Children collect
flowers and go to people's house
to give them flowers and in return
they get Rice or money.
Who are your Gods or Goddesses?
Our goddess is Mother Bhubhneshwari.
Our god is Siddhnath.
You told that you were born in Badrinath.
Have you ever been to other
pilgrimages because Uttarakhand has so
many places to visit.
Yes. I was born in Badrinath but I have
also visited Kedarnath, Gangotri and
Yamunotri. I had visited them during the
Uttarakhand 2013 floods.
What do you think about the current status
of your community and what improvements
do you want.
Our language is getting extinct slowly.
People are now getting aware about our
traditional dresses. We wear our dresses
to weddings and other functions.
Our language is dying because everyone
is settled in cites and have permanently
migrated. Only old people and unemployed
people have stayed back in the Village.
Even in villages people are teaching their
children Hindi.
Do you participate in any religious or
cultural activity?
I don't participate but people conduct
programs every year one time. They
organize it where ever they have settled.
Winter's must be really cold In Badrinath.
Do you still stay in Badrinath
during winter?
We don't stay in Badrinath during winter
We stay in our village for 6 months and
for the rest 6 months
We stay in Shirokhoma.
My in laws house is in Hanuman Chatti.
We don't have farm in Shirokhoma
We only grow small vegetables there
We grow potato, rajma and other
vegetables in our village. That is how we
survive.
What type of fruits or vegetables grow
in your village because not many of them
grow in such cold conditions.
We have apples, peach and apricot
Vegetables are mostly all grown here
Cucumber, radish, potato, rajma are
grown in big quantities here.
Where do you live right now?
We live in Dehradun.
Please tell us something about your family
in Dehradun.
I have 2 children. One daughter and
one son. My daughter has completed her
BA and my son in in 12th grade
Thank you so much.