On Foot in the Foothills

(Reis) While in the hills of the Indian Himalayas, we were exposed and introduced to a whole new culture. But one of the things we have learned is that you have to think like the culture, to understand and feel it. So of course, the 6explorers did just that. The Kumaoni culture lives in the north of India, at the foothills of the marvelous and colossal Himalayan Mountain Range. They dwell in small stone houses, with slate roofs, made from the copious rock in the area. They live a simple lifestyle comprised primarily of livestock and agriculture farming, with a touch of religion. Crops including mustard, millet, and rice (during the monsoon season) are farmed on wide terraces, utilizing the arable land that they have, and not letting the steep hills get in their way. Though the Kumaoni farm on the steep foothills, they clearly can’t farm on the sheer, frigid cliffs of the Himalayan Mountains. The dazzling, mammoth spears of jagged rock pierce the vast and pure blue heavens. The snow on the serrated peaks is a stark contrast against the deep sapphire sky. Evidently a place for marvelous pictures.

Women in the Himalayas carry everything

The people there do not have cars for economic reasons and frankly there are barely any roads! To deal with the lack of cars, they walk everywhere. The village children walk 5 km or 3 miles to school, over steep hilly terrain. The women have to walk a few undulating kilometers to the market, everyday, to get fresh daily items. It is evident that the grabbing hand of westernization has not seized the Kumaoni. And although we had to use planes, trains and automobiles

to get to the foothills, we used the foot-part of foothills most of the time while we were there.