378 BHOTIAS AND THEIR WAYS. 



from the Hindoo shrines of Badrinath and Kedarnath, are 

 seldom, if ever, infected with it. 



At one of our halting-places I met a dear old friend and 

 quondam companion on many a shikar trip Colonel Fisher, 

 the assistant commissioner of the province, who was out on 

 his circuit. At his camp I found Puddoo, a Bhotia of Niti, 

 my shikaree and guide on a former visit to the upper ranges 

 of Gurhwal, who had come down to meet me. 



The Bhotias 1 of Kumaon and Gurhwal are a half -Tibetan, 

 half-Himalayan people, inhabiting the highest villages on the 

 upper ranges of those provinces. They are more pastoral 

 than agricultural in their habits, and their manners and 

 customs are more Tartar than Hindoo, although they profess 

 to be of the latter persuasion. They occupy their villages 

 for a few months only during the summer, migrating to 

 the middle ranges in winter, during which they lead a 

 nomadic life. While the passes into Tibet are open (from 

 about the middle of June until the end of October) they are 

 constantly on the move, crossing and recrossing them with 

 their sheep, goats, and other beasts of burden, all and sundry 

 laden with grain, ghee (clarified butter), English manufactured 

 goods chiefly broadcloth, which they barter with the Tibetans 

 for borax, salt, and wool ; trading in Tibet being almost en- 

 tirely done by barter, money seldom changing hands. During 

 winter they carry their commodities from their camps on the 

 middle ranges down to the large towns and fairs in the 

 plains. Their religion is decidedly peculiar. They are 

 Hindoos in name, but are not recognised as such by the strict 

 Hindoos of the lower country, who will not intermarry with 

 them. While in Tibet they throw off Hindooisui and become 

 Buddhists. 



r 



1 "Bhot" is the term applied by the lower countrymen in general to the 

 snowy ranges. The Bhotias themselves, when they talk of Bhot, invariably 

 mean what the lower hill-men call Hundes the district of Tibet beyond the 

 Gurhwal and Kumaon mountain-passes. 



