When 41-year-old Rinchin Jomba’s recipe for momo, a sort of steamed dumpling, received the Millet Recipe Contest organised by the agriculture centre Krishi Vigyan Kendra in 2023, her pleasure transcended the mere thrill of profitable an award. She had spotlighted the culinary heritage of her neighborhood, the Monpa. The competition was a part of the Worldwide Yr of Millets 2023 celebrations, in Arunachal Pradesh’s Chug Valley, nestled within the West Kameng district.
Jomba created her momo recipe utilizing kongpu (finger millet) for the wrap and stuffing it with boiled locally-sourced potatoes and onion greens. Her main aim was to reintroduce the indigenous kongpu in a up to date kind that may enchantment to the modified palate of the youthful technology, who had by no means tasted it. Kongpu was as soon as very talked-about in Monpa delicacies. In only a yr, her millet momo has grow to be a success, among the many native residents and vacationers visiting Chug Valley searching for genuine Monpa delicacies.
The Monpas, an ethnic group, have lived within the Tawang and West Kameng districts of Arunachal Pradesh for a very long time. In Tibetan/Bhoti literature, ‘Mon’ typically refers to areas or lands at a decrease altitude in comparison with the Tibetan plateau and ‘pa’ refers to folks. Monpa, due to this fact refers to the folks residing within the south of Tibet on the Himalayan slope. Their way of life has performed a vital position in surviving the laborious, mountainous local weather.
At the moment, for a vacationer visiting the favored West Kameng and Tawang circuit, the momo (dumplings) and thukpa (a sort of noodle soup) have grow to be synonymous with Monpa meals. Mockingly, these dishes, now made with refined flour, usually are not conventional staples within the area, however trendy diversifications. Traditionally, dumplings have been a part of the festive delicacies, the place the wraps have been crafted from bong (barley), and stuffed with an array of greens, herbs, pork, and yak meat. And thukpa is greater than merely noodles. A daily family variant, it’s a roasted maize soup, with dried radish, native kidney beans, dried yak meat with a refined contact of jabrang (Sichuan peppercorns), seasoned calmly with salt — a once-scarce commodity nonetheless used sparingly. This hearty concoction is slow-cooked over the hearth all day, able to be loved after an extended day’s toil within the fields.
Over the previous few a long time nonetheless, the Monpa cuisine has undergone a profound transformation, with ancestral recipes and elements fading into obscurity, even among the many tribe’s personal folks.
The Monpa meals traditions
The Monpa neighborhood is an agrarian society, historically cultivating millet, barley, buckwheat and maize crops. The Brokpa, a sub-group of the neighborhood, specialises in rearing yaks, an exercise essential to their delicacies and livelihood. Monpas have a wealthy data repository of alcoholic drinks, dried and fermented meals, foraged herbs, berries, mushrooms, and meat from domesticated and wild animals.
Whereas the tribe historically consumes meat, the affect of Buddhism has led some sections to chorus from killing animals for meat; as a substitute consuming solely the meat of useless bovines like yak, which is uncommon. Yak milk merchandise, resembling chhurpi, churkam, ghee and curd, have a major presence of their each day weight loss plan.
Prior to now, the Monpa neighborhood was largely self-reliant, as its folks lived in isolation with restricted or no entry to the decrease altitude settlements, which meant that they relied on native assets. Nonetheless, this isolation additionally meant that meals shortage was a recurring problem.
The older technology reminisce that rice, which is now a staple, was nearly unknown to most individuals three to 4 a long time in the past, with solely sure varieties being cultivated within the valleys of West Kameng.
“As a toddler, my siblings and I might typically accompany our father on treks to the upper altitude Brokpa settlements,” Jomba recollects. “We carried a great deal of our harvested crops, bartering them for yak chhurpi and ghee. These journeys typically spanned days. Now and again, the Brokpas would go to us for the alternate. There have been no outlets to purchase meals; this was the only technique of commerce and sustenance. There was no want for money both.”
The decline in Monpa delicacies
Within the mid-Sixties, following the border conflicts with China, the Indian Military started establishing everlasting army bases in Arunachal Pradesh to safeguard the territory and assert management over this strategically essential area.
The army buildup endured over the decades, marked by the development of roads, airstrips, and different important infrastructure to assist military operations within the rugged and distant panorama. The Military employed many native residents in several capacities as porters, guides, labourers, and in assist providers throughout the army camps.
“The Indian Military supplied meals, medicines, and different necessities,” Jomba says. “Our father used to carry house atta (wheat flour) from the barracks — it was darker in color, and it was from the Military that we first realized to make roti. They helped us by way of instances of shortage, and finally, these hardships light away.” They have been additionally launched to grease and spices, though their utilization remains to be restricted in house cooked meals.
Tsering Drema, a horticulturist from Dirang city in West Kameng, says that till then, they’d by no means seen sure greens resembling cauliflower, cabbage, and even tomatoes. “Improved street connectivity later made new meals gadgets extra accessible,” Drema provides. “For instance, the Japanese persimmon was launched by the horticulture division within the late Nineteen Eighties. Earlier than its arrival, a wild selection with a lot smaller fruit was native to the area. At the moment, the brand new selection is propagated by way of grafting onto the native species, and this yr, persimmon harvests have seen a exceptional increase.”
The federal government-led Public Distribution System (PDS) that initiated subsidised meals and important commodities reached Arunachal Pradesh within the 1980s. By a community of fair-price outlets, rice, wheat, sugar, kerosene, grew to become abundantly accessible even within the beforehand inaccessible villages. This marked a pivotal shift locally’s weight loss plan.
On the draw back, the abundance of meals led the village residents to desert the cultivation of sure labour-intensive crops and greens. Over time, these things vanished totally from their dietary staples, leaving a void in conventional meals practices.
Pema Wange, a local of Thembang Heritage Village and Senior Challenge Officer at World Vast Fund for Nature (WWF) India, highlights one other, albeit oblique, issue — the shortage of correct schooling and medical amenities within the villages. “This shift drove village residents emigrate to city settlements, abandoning their conventional agrarian way of life,” Wange says. “The brand new lifestyle demanded laborious money to cowl bills, be it hire, schooling, healthcare, and even meals. To satisfy these wants, dad and mom typically left their youngsters within the cities, whereas they returned to the villages to domesticate money crops and trendy hybrid crop varieties, striving to earn extra.”
Rediscovering misplaced flavours
Jomba and 7 different girls now function a diner known as Damu’s Heritage Dine in Chug Valley. Damu means ‘daughter’ in Chug’s native language Duhumbi. With assist from WWF-India, the eatery has revived forgotten native elements and recipes, providing genuine Monpa delicacies with a up to date twist. A luxurious seven to eight-course meal is ready utilizing homegrown and hand-picked forest produce in a standard kitchen, set inside a 100-year-old stone home, typical to this a part of Arunachal Pradesh.
It begins with phursing gombu, a corn tart with the oleoresins of the Chinese language lacquer tree (Toxicodendron vernicifluum), gently roasted in yak ghee over smoldering charcoal. Historically, the resin was a family treatment, used to alleviate birthing ache, physique aches, and colds. At the moment, just one particular person within the village possesses the uncommon talent of extracting it with out incurring allergic reactions. The neighborhood is fearful about shedding this conventional data of extracting the resin and is pondering of how to cross on this data to the subsequent technology.
The corn tart is adopted by takto khazi puttang — buckwheat noodles with native herbs and fermented soybean and chilli sauce. The noodles are handmade in an indigenous picket noodle maker known as puttang shing.
Different dishes embrace the gunchung (buckwheat) thukpa, millet tacos (a up to date recipe with native fillings), khurba (buckwheat pancake) with litho (wild pear) marmalade, fin brumsha chura kamtang (pumpkin and glass noodle stew), shya marku (rooster ginger and ghee stew), korsha (kidney bean stew) and dressi (native crimson rice fried in yak ghee with crushed walnuts and jaggery). The dishes are served with quite a lot of chamin (chutney). The dishes fluctuate, altering with the supply of elements.
“Monpa delicacies has numerous chutneys made out of seasonal berries and herbs,” provides Jomba. “Nonetheless, many dishes are not often cooked as we speak, besides on holidays when the neighborhood gathers to arrange a picnic-style feast of genuine recipes. These are the uncommon events once we actually savour our conventional dishes.”
Nishant Sinha, coordinator for community-based tourism with WWF-India, who led this initiative, explains that they goal to offer the area people with an alternate supply of livelihood as an incentive to preserve their forests and pure assets. “Damu’s Heritage Dine is part of this effort, specializing in their foraging-based weight loss plan complemented by domestically cultivated produce. Even after spending 4 to 5 months right here, I used to be nonetheless struggling to totally perceive Monpa delicacies. We met with the neighborhood members and finally introduced collectively this group of ladies. By a number of discussions about their childhood favourites and the dishes they now miss, we managed to recreate just a few. That’s how it began.”
When the eating mission was conceptualised a yr in the past, retrieving the misplaced recipes was a wrestle. Handed down by way of generational sharing most have been forgotten with out being cooked. “The elders taught us just a few, and since then, we’ve been rediscovering them one-by-one,” says Jomba. “We imagine that as a result of it (these elements) comes from the forests, the forests have to stay for this meals merchandise to stay. So, the extra fashionable this turns into, we’re positively supporting the conservation of forests right here,” Sinha provides.
The subsequent problem was sourcing buckwheat, finger millet, and different native grains, for these have been not cultivated. These have been initially sourced from exterior, however because the eatery gained recognition, its proprietors have inspired the area people to begin rising them once more within the valley. This yr, just a few farmers have taken up the duty, and Damu’s Heritage Dine can be buying most of their harvest.
Their best delight for the diner is that the native Monpa folks have began visiting commonly. For a lot of, it’s an emotional journey again to the childhood meals as soon as lovingly ready by their moms and grandmothers; dishes they’d lengthy misplaced hope of ever tasting once more. A few of these previous recipes have even made their approach again into the village kitchens.
