Uttarakhand

"Between it [Nundidevi] and the Chinese frontier, two remarkable races of men are found, the first the Bhooteahs, a Mongolian tribe, worshippers of the Delai Lama, who are said to be the descendants of one of the hordes who crossed the snowy mountains with Tamerlane; the other, a savage race, who neither plough nor dig, but live by the chace and on wild fruits only. They call themselves the original inhabitants of the soil, and appear to be the same people with the Puharrees of Rajmahal. I saw some Bhooteahs during my stay at Almorah, who had come down with a cargo of “chowries,” tails of the “yak,” or mountain-ox. They are a short square-built people, with the true Calmuk countenance and eye, and with the same remarkable cheerfulness of character and expression, by which the Calmuk tribes are in general distinguished. Their dress was also completely Tartar, large boots with their trowsers stuffed into them, caftans girded round the waist, and little bonnets edged with black sheep’s skin."

"Of the inhabitants every body seems to speak well. They are, indeed, dirty to a degree which I never saw among Hindoos, and extremely averse to any improvement in their rude and inefficient agriculture, but they are honest, peaceable, and cheerful, and, in the species of labour to which they are accustomed, extremely diligent. There are hardly twelve convicts now in the goal of Almorah; and the great majority of cases which come before Mr. Traill are trifling affrays, arising from disputed boundaries, trespass, and quarrels at fair and markets. The only serious public cases which are at all prevalent, are adultery, and sometimes, carrying off women to marry them forcibly. They use their women ill, and employ them in the most laborious tasks, in which, indeed, a wife is regarded by the Khasya peasant as one of the most laborious and valueable of his domestic animals. These people, though rigid Hindoos, are not so inhospitable as their brethren of the plain. Even Europeans travelling through the country who will put up such accommodations as the peasantry have to offer, are almost sure of being well received, and have no need of carrying tents with them, provided their journey is made at a time when the peasantry are at home to receive them, and not during the annual emigration to the plains."

"Any attempt to fashion a form of belonging that is appropriate for Uttarakhand is hampered by the old rivalry between Kumaon and Garhwal, the two former Hindu kingdoms that together constitute nearly all of the new state. From an anthropological point of view, the differences between Garhwalis and Kumaonis are minimal: their languages, religions, caste structures, and kinship systems are more similar to each other than to anyone else, and yet despite this shared ethnicity—or more likely because of it—the old rivalry between them is difficult to eradicate."