Living With Nepal's Last Nomads (Global Documentary) | Real Stories

I've always been fascinated by nomads [Music] constantly on the move this beautiful journey surviving in some of the world's most remote wildernesses was a removal van Rijn a leader and living cheek-by-jowl with nature it's always seemed a wildly romantic existence the most magical place but it's no easy life the sort of Cobre makes you feel physically sick and in today's modern world they're under increasing pressure I'm going to live with three groups of nomads in Mongolia farm bellow rated zap Siberia and with Nepal's last nomads the route a namaste these hunter-gatherers once lived deep in the forests but today there are less than a hundred and fifty route a people living as nomads and the pressure for them to settle is mounting I just want all these people to go away and leave them alone as they're facing increasing threats from the outside world [Music] for over 900 years the dark steeply wooded hills of central Nepal have been home to the famously secretive route a they are a group of people who traditionally have lived very remotely from settled people in the pool these are people that really live life on the moons but in recent years they've been leaving the forest and suckling within Nepali society all except one small group very little has been written about them we don't think that anyone has ever filmed them for television before and getting access to them has been a very long and careful negotiating process it's a two-day journey into the heart of southwestern Nepal to a small district called dielectric ountry 'he's last nomadic group the route a move every few weeks around this their traditional territory which is roughly the size of Wales [Music] 17 route a communities once roamed northern India in Nepal but today only one remains a small group of around 140 people I've been told that their current camp is somewhere down in this valley from what I can gather quite private people so I don't know really what sort of reception to expect the route a live by three guiding principles no settlement no education and no agriculture [Music] I'm keen to know how they can hold on to these beliefs as they come into closer contact with more mainstream society [Music] Wow so that's where they are that little camper cloth-covered shelters and this is it this is the entire rowdy population of Nepal right here you can also see how close they are to the houses up on the side here they're camped right on the edge of people's rice paddies there's always suspicion between settled and non settled people I mean you know we only have to look at our own country in the way that people view travelers given that there are so few of them left and that there seems to be this shift towards living much closer to settle people does this spell the end of the last nomadic tribe of Nepal [Music] namaste namaste this way thank you you have to shake your hand no okay [Music] we've pre-arranged our filming and we're compensating the router for their time but there's an uneasiness in the camp and no one's very keen to engage with me [Music] silver the time what do you want me to do with it and you want me to buy it I want to know first who taught you to carve the banana if you lose anything [Music] I don't want to buy it yet maybe another day our tobacco it seems at the moment that I am being seen a little bit like a human ATM and everything is about money everything you know that's a nice Bowl yes you can buy it you know I'll be welcoming to you if you pay me which is I suppose not that surprising really given that there's been so little contact with foreigners [Music] it's going to take time to win their trust Bart as is often the case it's the children who seem the most intrigued [Music] [Music] the route a are moving away from the deep forest where they had no need for money but now as they enter the cash economy they're some of the poorest people in one of the poorest nations on earth [Music] the crew and I are camping a short walk from the route a settlement today's been a really tough day at one point I I tried to shake a woman's hand and she absolutely wouldn't have anything to do with me no eye contact she physically turns away and that's that's quite hard to deal with but it would be lovely to feel at some point that there is a genuine connection and interaction that isn't just paid for [Music] today the route a have decided to move [Music] [Applause] namaste you want me to help it's not clear why they're moving but with such simple dwellings and very few possessions it's a quick process packing up camp the route a may not own much but it often takes two days to carry their belongings to the new campsite you tell me what to do okay so what would you like me to do it is so frustrating I want to help and make friends but to the route a I still represent only one thing [Music] I feel very guilty not carrying anything - typically when you see these little kids walking up with their human loads but at the moment they so still don't really know what to do with me and I suppose I don't really know how to break the barriers down [Music] she looks at very very pregnant and although this poll weighs nothing just feel you want to take it sure okay and then a small breakthrough I thought that if I waited long enough at the side of the road with me empty-handed someone who would eventually give me something to carry it feels like a tiny tiny step to being allowed in these hills are at 1700 meters above sea level so walking with heavy loads in this heat and humidity is incredibly tough [Music] I've gained at the whole and ago it's hard work we're doing this in the hottest part of the day I'm trying very hard not to show any sign of weakness whatsoever when you've got little bruise like this probably carrying more than their body weight [Music] while we rest one of the most respected elders mine Badou tells me about their moves [Music] out of a Bahama honey since her days have taken another near educate some of us know something there is two minutes are past when your visa you create Omaha me personally NATO NATO tayo yeah but I go business a kinder egg over here when she gets out do sergeant but Sir Peter Cuneo tomorrow honey pecan magic I'll be a bargain a magic baby the route a used to hunt monkeys and forage for food in the forest but over the past decade with the cultivation of more and more land they're becoming increasingly reliant on trade honey gonna burn my three burner but Sharon kind of the sounds are you this can me and we teach our shop [Music] [Music] after four hours of trekking we arrived at the Nou Camp which looks remarkably like someone's farm there are four rotate Chiefs each elected by the community one of them I'm Badou has asked me to go with him to collect wood each time they move throughout a rebuild their simple shelters taking what they need from the surrounding forest so this is what the villagers are afraid of all the route a now spreading out and cutting trees down now you might think why don't they bring everything with them but given that they carry everything by hand and having just carried a few poles myself I can understand why they just think well you know it's all rot down we'll just leave it there but equally you can see why the villagers must think what a waste of wood anymore who we're going this way yeah this one it's illegal for Nepal ease to fell trees they're only allowed to take dead wood from the forest floor so it's gonna fall this way okay so we go that side but the government has granted the route a special permission to take what they need it's easy to see how that could lead to conflict [Music] so is this a good new site for everybody Harbor near to mother barnacle about convenient but company numbers her whenever I open do you know who owns this land and he doesn't mind that you come and set up your camp on his land do you pay him something to use the land no perfect again agriculture is vital to Nepal's struggling economy but as more land is cultivated the route a increasingly encroach onto farmed land provoking tension between two very different ways of living i'm nita bam she and her family have farmed this land for the past ten years they ask you permission to stay on your land sweetie no no I did it I'm not even 18 annually for my lover like a dog or not it was inevitable but reality I don't have any money no our videos I'd like to talk on a tower mooney realtor the talk Duke I'm not being childish the shop has a beautifully beautifully I knock you out in it my I gotta push I did I know you just or what you gotta do this I've been with the router for three days now it's hard getting to know them but I am starting to understand their sense of identity they are enormous ly proud of who they are and there is something regal about them in their filthy clothing and their matted hair and yet you know the women walk through that camp like princesses they've got this incredible bearing about them they look magnificent and if anything is going to keep them as route a as these you know highly mobile highly proud obstreperous difficult impossible to understand people it is going to be just the essence of them of what it is that make them route a [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] the next day the route a are gathering yet more wood but this time to make handicrafts in the past they bartered their boxes and bowls for food but today they're mostly sold for cash it's not enough to live on so in 2009 then a parley government began to give each route a a monthly cash allowance of six pounds the route a are clearly becoming dependent on the cash economy via Badu another chief is one of the best Carver's in the community can you tell me what you're making the Abadi has six children his two eldest boys deepak and Kapil are already becoming accomplished coffers do you teach Kapil and deep in raha culture only the men would carve but everyone gets involved in trading and they seem happy enough for me to help finish these bowls for market [Music] we're taking the bowls to the local village of God Abbas where a trader is waiting to buy them [Music] [Music] I head off with beer bad news sons it's a two hour walk to the village are yet more ridiculously steep hills [Music] [Applause] [Music] that's this is quite a walk to the chops I thought I was reasonably fit and reasonably strong and I couldn't be to five euros it's funny out of their camp the atmosphere is very different people seem to be a bit more open and friendly towards me generally a bit more chatty but what I contact from the women a bit of smiling maybe it's just the excitement of being near a shop with tobacco and fizzy drinks there the trader waiting for the rowdy is from another district 200 kilometres away the polls will be refined and decorated for the European market where they'll sell for up to 40 pounds each for the bowls very much should you pay more I believe our car the cars on you Galera okay Nikki Gordon whatever the cash from the sale of the bowls is used to buy rice flour vegetables and tobacco [Music] did the sale go well today did you did you get some good money yeah and what will you do with the money now Connie Connie right away as the Wyatt a move closer to the settled world they become more exposed to all its trappings what do you think about things like mobile phones or televisions and I love you yeah I look in the little 1b and the same for phones as well which I put up with Gina Gina do you think your life would be better if you lived in a village like this one settled me camera D Mulcahy no matter my d ug bunny partner she did her moment this is so surprising to hear wherever I go it's always the younger generation that wants new technology to modernize but here it seems these rowdy boys genuinely hold their traditions dear [Applause] [Music] MacDonald had a farm eieio and on that farm he had a dog eieio and then you do the noise that the dog makes with a the road in the camp has definitely become more relaxed and if singing Old MacDonald helps I'm not proud [Laughter] [Music] URI I owe and on that farm he had what's the word for cockerel helping with the Moo's selling bowls with the boys and now singing Old MacDonald really seems to have broken the ice maybe a little too much Tulsi is Deepak and kapila's aren't she's been asking me about whether I've got a baby or not she's a widow her husband died a few years ago from what they think was malaria how many children do you have seen Dennis and this is your youngest one youngest daughter and then the other two you have some sons or daughters in rowdy families is it good to have daughter or son or it doesn't matter you're almost as pretty as your mum when her husband died til she lost her main source of income as only the men are allowed to carve bowls to sell she does receive the monthly government allowance but it's not enough to sustain her family but the route a are a close-knit community tells his brother-in-law by Badou and his sons Kapil and deepak helped to support her we snap off the ferns woody stem leaving us off to shoot the fern fronds are boiled in salted water with chilies and then left to go cold Tulsi and her children will eat them with plain boiled rice this evening [Music] thank you thank you today it was a really special day [Music] [Applause] [Music] this morning it's all change the route a have decided to move again the decision to move is taken by the whole group but the Chiefs have the final say an advance party has already scouted out a new campsite slowly the whole community embarks on the six-hour trek I'm helping Tulsi the route they usually move when they can't becomes unclean if the water supply isn't good enough or after a death in the group this time they want to move to a site with more space in five days time it's the biggest festival of the Hindu calendar Desai they want a campsite that will sustain them for the duration of the 15 day celebration I suspect have been given the kids load I'm carrying firewood probably not that much 15 kilos but this Hill is a killer even for the nimble-footed rowdy [Applause] taehwa where's the removal van when you need it the one thing that is coming through unequivocally during the time that I spend with these people is that their nomadism is right at their heart this is their life and it's hard but it's what makes them tick and I really get that [Music] after three hours we arrive at the halfway mark my small loads been hard enough but tor sees is nearer 40 he knows about the weight of a ten-year-old child [Music] [Music] being with people like this makes me feel just so inadequate they're so strong and resilient and they kind of fit with this landscape and they don't think that what they do is extraordinary this is just their life and if I or you got the impression at all that they don't want to go crops because it's all a bit of an effort and they like the sense of freedom don't be fooled that they are in any way idle or lazy what I've seen today can only be achieved by people who really really know what hard work is [Music] the routers new camp on these man-made terraces is surrounded by a busy road it feels a long way away from their traditional settlements deep in the forest [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] peel is making valiant attempts to build Tulsi shelter and I'm trying to help as much as I can but Tulsi is clearly a hard taskmaster and is demanding perfection over the last decade as other route aid groups have settled they've become subsumed into mainstream society but these last nomads attract attention wherever they go in finance hello means even gladder you know what am i Dilip under comes in silver surah Rahman in their armies all right gentleman up in the garden you know no one I mean I was I don't know economically know more about the villager Mahajan mana is employed by the district to take care of this slow communal plot of land I know something like you whenever I shoot it I think I'm go to Vegas to show meeting 11:00 Saturday at home versus a male only cover like I'm the poor you rely on this resilience astronaut theorists idea just one fuzzy Romans one a lot at too low a stamina go to Portugal can I put a card every pasta cada system like one of the Athenian [Music] universe gave me an ablator you have me you agnya you put on a doctor giving it to that without me Kevin you too Lucas Winnick everybody's giving any you Jimmy Z T G foundation channel vertical Denis daddy economy oh sorry Rita you go because I'm 20 Gerson there have been a lot of people coming to the camp do you think of that you do with another can you borrow get a meritorious up with Madonna Maserati gotta believe a phantom how did he choke on it mama that's good imagine there's a cadenza bashyam up on Mondays 11 animals and you you should listen to your wife maybe and perhaps you should just get off your tail and go somewhere else where everyone else can just get some peace I give you that I am ugly that's okay very tense afternoon I can't say I'm surprised really psyched that they've moved to is so public and there are a lot of people who are threatening them in one way or another there was one man in particular who works in the forestry around here is incredibly upset that they've cut down the trees and I have to say I can totally see his point but I am really torn so I feel incredibly protective it's really odd but I just think I just want all these people to go away and leave them alone so it's really silly but I was looking at Kapila face when his father be about you and this other man were just yelling at each other and he just looked he looked distraught really distraught and as much as as much as the route I say but they will always live this life and they're proud of who they are you wonder whether eventually they'll either be forced somehow to conform all they'll be forced back into the forest and away from villages again [Music] when people come and they shout at you and they want you to go away does that happen a lot hell naw - opening middle name buddy oh I mean I don't mean it about her about Vanessa calculus huh dude it's about me to learn it I gotta go plan you can end up there register mm-hmm Appa you're a good day they'll take that Dame up and I see my I'm gonna miss her terribly Juba bat Messiah scimitar but along with similar idea get out huh get a little suppose that I did Mandy Lavinia is a day when a here moon argued mum metallurgy would you give to pure long serve energy man Jacob and opinions in Parramatta Gideon attack at new battle played by casually elegant [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] today's the start of the Hindu festival Desai the route a zone belief system is a mixture of Hinduism and animism the ancient belief that all things in nature animals plants and the elements possess a spiritual essence to help them celebrate their Sai the Nepalese government gives every route a family a special payment of 65 pounds with which they buy a goat for slaughter and enough food for the 15 days of celebration the chief district officer sag Amani para julie has arrived to make the payment in longed to see the become a settled people do you think would really be willing to settle they are not willing we have to convince them in future I hope they will come to the mainstream social life it would be better and gradually they will not remain barefooted all the time I hope within three decades their life drastically changed and towards the other life I think it would be a shame it's pretty clear that by handing out this cash the Nepalese government is trying to entice these last nomadic router into becoming settled I think it would be enormous ly sad if the router were just to be absorbed into conformist Nepali society the world has become so homogenized and when you meet and spend time with people like this you realize that there is a great deal of value in diversity but my worry is that with such a small group of them just a hundred and forty-three still living like nomads what chance do they really have it may in the end be a combination of all those social and political pressures and that they become used to having a bit of cash in their pockets that may undermine this extraordinary way of life but the identity of being a rowdy a is extraordinarily strong there is a real pride in their heritage and I don't think they're going to let that go lightly [Music] as dusk descends the tension of yesterday is forgotten and the route a begin there with this wonderful [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] with the rowdy and tomorrow I'm gonna be heading back to Kathmandu and then some reason that I can't really explain they don't seem speaks or the people that you say goodbye to celebrate and then to pack up their things next time I'm in Siberia sort of Cobre makes you feel physically sick traveling with a family of reindeer herders in one of the most extreme places on earth what place food life in this freezing wilderness has always been tough in 2010 I thought all will turn out new today people they didn't take on the internet working but now they're facing the global threats of climate change and heavy industry be my opinion sealer is one big gas reserve [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: Real Stories

Views: 91,548

Keywords: 2019 documentaries, Asia culture, BBC documentary, Kate Humble, Real Stories channel, TwoFour Rights, ancient rituals, channel 4, cultural immersion., exotic cultures, folk traditions, human adaptation, native communities, nature living, outdoor adventure, survival skills, traditional living, unique cultures, white savior, wonder

Id: GwO40irtfPw

Length: 51min 31sec (3091 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 05 2019