Iron, Identity, and Indigenous Knowledge: A Study of Garrā Tribe in Ladakh
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31305/rrijm.2025.v10.n5.038Keywords:
Garrā, tribe, Ladakh, indigenous knowledge, metal work, blacksmithsAbstract
The Garrā people, engaged in the practice of metal work and blacksmithery for centuries in Ladakh is a socially marginalised among the eight tribal groups in Ladakh. However, the people constitute an important part of the Ladakhi social order since they supply local households and farmers with agricultural implements and domestic metal wares adapted to the region’s harsh trans-Himalayan environment. The tribe has received least attention from the research scholars till date and the current paper investigates the Garrā metalwork art and tools and implements produced by them which have been at the root of Ladakhi agricultural practices for centuries. This paper synthesises historical, ethnographic, and craft-studies sources to examine the metalworking tradition of the Garrā of Ladakh.
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This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0).
