The Jad people are a semi nomadic tribe living in great Himalayas in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand states of India. They are primarily settled in the bordering region of Uttarakhand (Uttarkashi district), Himachal Pradesh (Kinnaur district) and Tibet. They mainly practiced sheep rearing and were shrewd traders trading with the Tibet. They were also recognised as the rulers of the Gartang Garh (one among the 52 Garhs or forts of the Garhwal Kingdom). The famous tourist destination Gartang Gali is also found near their village. They were entrusted by the King of Garhwal, with the important strategic task of securing the borders of Garhwal Kingdom from the Bushahr kingdom of Himachal and the Tibetan Empire. The language they speak is critically endangered almost endemic to India. Although, the language share some similarity to the kinnauri and spiti language which also Is of Tibeto-Burman family. [1]
Jadhang village itself and Jad people living in Jadhang and Nelang valley are named after a man "Jadha" who was resettled here in 1849 by a british adventurer Frederick Wilson. The settlement document of Garhwal Kingdom, which administered this area, from that era reads, "Wilson invited certain Jadha from the upper Pargana of Kunawar in Bashahr state (now in Himachal Pradesh) to settle at Nilang, re-establish the hamlet of Jadhang and administered the area on behalf of Maharaja Bhavani Shah [r. 1859-71 CE]." Wilson also built the Gartang Gali stairway. [2]
As of 2001 [update] , the Jad people were classified as a Scheduled Tribe under the Indian government's reservation program of positive discrimination. [1]
Garhwal is one of the two administrative divisions of the Indian state of Uttarakhand. Lying in the Himalayas, it is bounded on the north by Tibet, on the east by Kumaon, on the south by Uttar Pradesh state, and on the northwest by Himachal Pradesh state. It includes the districts of Chamoli, Dehradun, Haridwar, Pauri Garhwal, Rudraprayag, Tehri Garhwal, and Uttarkashi. The people of Garhwal are known as Garhwali and speak the Garhwali language. The administrative center for Garhwal division is the town of Pauri. The Divisional Commissioner is the administrative head of the Division, and is a senior Indian Administrative Service officer. As the administrative head of the division, the Commissioner is overall incharge of the 7 districts in the Garhwal region of Uttarakhand, and is aided in his duties by an additional commissioner and the district magistrates. Sushil Kumar is the divisional commissioner of the Garhwal Division since December 2021.
Bhotiya or Bhot is an Indian and Nepali exonym lumping together various ethnic groups speaking Tibetic languages, as well as some groups speaking other Tibeto-Burman languages living in the Transhimalayan region that divides India from Tibet. The word Bhotiya comes from the classical Tibetan name for Tibet, བོད, bod. The Bhotiya speak numerous languages including Ladakhi. The Indian recognition of such language is Bhoti / Bhotia having Tibetan scripts and it lies in the Parliament of India to become one of the official languages through Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution.
Uttarakhand, formerly known as Uttaranchal, is a state in northern India. The state is bordered by Himachal Pradesh to the northwest, Tibet to the north, Nepal to the east, Uttar Pradesh to the south and southeast, with a small part touching Haryana in the west. Uttarakhand has a total area of 53,566 km2 (20,682 sq mi), equal to 1.6 per cent of the total area of India. Dehradun serves as the state capital, with Nainital being the judicial capital. The state is divided into two divisions, Garhwal and Kumaon, with a total of 13 districts. The forest cover in the state is 45.4 per cent of the state's geographical area. The cultivable area is 16 per cent of the total geographical area. The two major rivers of the state, the Ganges and its tributary Yamuna, originate from the Gangotri and Yamunotri glaciers respectively.
Khas tribe, popularly known as Khashya, according to the 2015 constitution of Nepal are an Indo-Aryan ethno-linguistic group native to the Himalayan region of the Indian subcontinent, in what is now the South Asian country of Nepal, as well as the Indian states of Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, West Bengal, Assam and Sikkim. Historically, Khas were the speakers of an ancient Khas language from the Indo-Aryan language family and the earliest recorded speakers of the Western Pahari languages. The large portion of the Indo-Aryan speakers throughout lower Himalayas were the Khas people. An intrusion of this tribe from the Western and Northwestern Himalayas into Central Himalayas is substantiated by the early linguistic evidences related to the Nepali language. They were also known as Parbatiyas/Parbates and are currently known as Paharis/Pahadis.. They were also referred to as Yartse in Tibet and are also known as Khasan by Bhotia people. The term Khas has now become obsolete, as the Khas people have adopted communal identities because of the negative stereotypes associated with the term Khas. In Nepal the native speaker of Nepali language are known as Khas people.
Nainital district is a district in Kumaon division which is a part of Uttarakhand state in India. The headquarters is at Nainital.
Tehri Garhwal is a district in the hill state of Uttarakhand, India. Its administrative headquarters is at New Tehri. The district has a population of 618, 931, a 2.35% increase over the previous decade. It is surrounded by Rudraprayag District in the east, Dehradun District in the west, Uttarkashi District in the north, and Pauri Garhwal District in the south. Tehri Garhwal is a part of the Himalayas.
Uttarkashi District is a district of Garhwal division of the Uttarakhand state in northern India, and has its headquarters at Uttarkashi city. It has six Tehsils namely Barkot, Dunda, Bhatwadi, Chinyalisaur, Purola and Mori.
Garhwal District is a former district in Kumaon of British India of the United Provinces, and had an area of 5,629 sq mi (14,580 km2). It later became a part of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, today it is part of the Indian state Uttarakhand.
The Bhotiya, also called Rongpa, are located in the trans-Himalayan region of India. Rongpa communities are some of the oldest and native of the upper belt of the Himalayas, close to the border of Tibet in Garhwal. It was once believed that the Rongpa community had been wiped out.
Gauchar is a Hill Town sort of a valley town located in Karnaprayag tehsil within Chamoli district of Uttarakhand state in India. Gauchar is situated on the left bank of river Alaknanda and is en route to the celebrated holy destination of Badrinath. It is well known for being one of the cleanest place in country. It has previously topped Swachta sarvekshan best ganga town award. Situated at an altitude of 800 metres (2,620 ft) above the sea level, Gauchar is surrounded by seven mountains. Gauchar is well known for its historic trade fair and airstrip. Gauchar town known for its great work to curb loss of lives in 2013 flood disaster of Uttarakhand. This town is unique in terms of its geographical location and topography. Gauchar is located on one of the largest pieces of flatland in this mountainous region of Uttarakhand. Education institution in Gauchar includes a beautiful Kendriya Vidyalaya adjacent to the main playground.
Jaunsar-Bawar is a hilly region in Garhwal division of Uttarakhand, northern India. It is located in the north-west of Dehradun district, along the border with the state of Himachal Pradesh.
Harsil is a village, tourist hill station and army area located on the banks of the Bhagirathi River, on the way to Gangotri, a Hindu pilgrimage site in Uttarkashi district of the Indian state of Uttarakhand.
Bhoksa, also known as Buksa/Bukhasiya, are indigenous peoples living mainly in the Indian states of Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh. They are mostly concentrated in Dehradun and Nainital districts in the foothills of the outer Himalayas. They are also found in the Bijnor district of Uttar Pradesh, where they are known as Khas. Both communities have been granted Scheduled Tribe status.
Uttarakhand is a Himalayan state in North India, nestled between the Tibetan Plateau and the Indo-Gangetic Plains. The name, which means "northern land" or "section" or "northern part" in Sanskrit was made popular in the 80s as part of the wider statehood struggle within the region.
The Garhwali people are an Indian ethnolinguistic group native to the Garhwal, in the Indian state of Uttarakhand, who speak Garhwali, an Indo-Aryan language.
Bhotiyas are people of presumed Tibetan heritage that live along the Indo-Tibetan border in the upper reaches of the Great Himalayas, at elevations ranging from 6,500 feet (2,000 m) to 13,000 feet (4,000 m). In Uttarakhand, they inhabit seven river valleys, three in the Garhwal division and four in the Kumaon division. They follow Hinduism with Buddhism and traditionally speak West Himalayish languages related to the old Zhangzhung language. Their main traditional occupation used to be Indo-Tibetan trade, with limited amounts of agriculture and pastoralism. The Indo-Tibetan trade came to a halt following the 1962 Sino-Indian war, and was resumed only in the early 1990s under state-regulated mechanisms. Their major livelihood at present is the collection of medicinal and aromatic plants in the Himalayas. Many have also migrated out of their traditional habitats to towns at lower elevations. The traditional transhumance and pastoralism have also drastically reduced.
Jad (Dzad), also known as Bhotia and Tchhongsa, is a language spoken by a community of about 300 in the states of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh, in India. It is spoken in several villages, and the three major villages are Jadhang, Nelang and Pulam Sumda in the Harsil sub-division of the Uttarkashi District. Jad is closely related to the Lahuli–Spiti language, which is another Tibetic language. Jad is spoken alongside Garhwali and Hindi. Code switching between Jad and Garhwali is very common. The language borrows some vocabulary from both Hindi and Garhwali. It is primarily a spoken language.
Nelang or Nilang is a river valley of the Himalayas, containing a small eponymous village, in the Uttarkashi District of the state of Uttarakhand, India. It is close to the disputed Sino-Indian Line of Actual Control (LAC), and is also claimed by China as part of Zanda County of Ngari Prefecture of Tibet.
Sang (Jadhang) is a small hilly village in Uttarkashi District, Uttarakhand, India, and claimed by Zanda County, Ngari Prefecture, Tibet, China. A tributary of the Jadh Ganga, itself an important tributary of the Bhagirathi River, flows through this place.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Uttarakhand: