Photographing The Limboo People

Our last blog post on our trip to Sikkim ends with a photo-montage of the Limboo people. As you read in our last post we spent some time with out guide, Perna, and his family. They reside in the village of Darap in an old house passed down through the generations. Perna lives in relative luxury with a TV in his room, but the main house is like something out the dark ages. It is a beautiful dry-mud building, with a constantly burning fire in the main room that leaves thick, black, sooty deposits in the ceiling and whose smoke leaks through the floorboards into the roof. Perna’s father is a bamboo weaver, specialising in fencing. In the following images you’ll see evidence of this throughout, including the spare baskets left in the roof to dry.

We were privileged to be allowed to spend a morning with these gentle people, even more so that they patiently allowed us to snoop around their house and photograph them going about their daily chores, which was mainly drinking salted tea and cooking pop-corn.

Perched on the edge of a mountain-side, Perna's family house (centre) has been sitting here for 200 years. Perna's bedroom is the building to the left and the chicken coup cum pig-sty is to the right
No sexual discrimination here. Both men and women work equally as hard all their lives
A typical Limboo lady, with large nose jewellery
Perna's mother

Ancient steps, as old as the house, leading up to the very smokey roof
Perna's father
Sister
Perna in his bedroom. Note the bamboo walls

Perna's aunt, whose voice sounds like a cross between ET, Darth Vader and a Dalek. Lovely lady, mind.

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