Evening star., 1936-05-17
BY MAI. C. ]. MORRIS,
Transport Oficer. 1886 British Mount
Everest Expedition,

Transport Ofncer. 1886 British Mount
Everest Expedition.
TENGKYI DZONG, Tibet, April
81 (by airmail via London) Al
though the fertile valleys of Sikkim
are now behind US, brief account Of
some Of the peoples who live on the
southern slopes of the Himalaya, in
cluded among whom are. Of course,
our own Sherpa and Bhotiya porters,
may be of interest to those who are
following the progress of this years
Mount Everest expedition.
All these various people-and there
are some hundreds of tribes in all
differ very greatly from the people Of
India proper, in that whereas the lat
ter are for the most part Of Aryan
origin, the former are OF Mongoloid
stock. Physical differences are most
marked for nearly all these Eastern
Himalayan tribes are small in stature,
have practically no facial OF body
hair. and possess the typical almond
shaped eyes and rather prominent
cheek bones, usually associated with
the Mongolian race.
Very few of the tribes. however,
could nowadays be classified as purely
Mongolian, for since they migrated
into the fertile valleys on the southern
slopes of the Himalaya there has nat
urally been a certain amount of inter-
marriage with the various peoples Of
Indian and other stock. who either
migrated, for political reasons, to the
Himalayan valleys, or who possibly
were in occupation of them prior to
the arrival of the Mongoloid tribes
men,
Inter- Breeding Abandoned.
Inter-breeding no longer takes place
to any extent. and marriage is now
controlled by means of elaborate rules,
which differ greatly from tribe to
tribe: but very common form is that
known to ethnologists as the cross
cousin marriage. by which man mar
ries either the daughter Of his fathers
sister or that of his mothers brother.
AS in other parts of the world where
this system of selecting marriage
partner is usual, we find also among
these tribes a very complicated CLASH
factory relationship system, beside
which our simple classification Of
uncles. aunts and cousins appears ex-
traordinarily clumsy and inefficient.
One of the most striking character
istics of all the Himalayan Mongolold
tribes is their extreme gentleness and,
in spite of many warlike qualities, un-
willingness to assert themselves. The
practical result of this has been that
the series of tribes now known collec-
lively as Gurkhas gradually acquired
a position of dominance over the re-
mainder.
At the time of the Mohammedan in
vasion of India. more particularly in
the seventeenth century. large num-
bers of Rajputs ard many Brahmans
fed into the hills of Nepal rather than
submit to the indignities imposed upon
them by the conquering hordes. AS a
result OF this came the introduction
into Nepal of the caste system, now
well established.
Rajput Blood Infused.
But OF much greater significance
was the infusion of Rajput blood into
the peace-loving and at that time en-
tirely unambitious Gurkha tribes. AS
a result. Prithwi Narayan, himself
pure Rajput and lineal ancestor of
the present King of Nepal. was en-
abled to conquer not only the whole of
the modern kingdom of Nepal, but was
also enabled gradually to extend his
conquest as far as the west Of the
present day Simla hill states, and to