Brokpas, Aryan Valley, Ladakh

The Brokpa are among the last communities in the Indian subcontinent believed to be of pure Indo-Aryan descent, inhabiting a handful of villages in the remote Aryan Valley along the Indus. Largely untouched by the cultural currents that have reshaped Ladakh, they maintain distinct traditions in dress, ritual, and relationship with land.

These portraits are an attempt to look closely at faces that carry centuries, at a way of life quietly holding its ground.