Flex Mentallo

Sittong is also known as the 'Lepcha village'. The valley is commonly known as 'Orange Valley'. Every tiny house has a garden. And every garden has an orange grove. Situated in a deep valley beside the Riyang River, it is one of the most untouched parts of the foothills, yet is only 50 kilometres from Darjeeling itself. It is the impassibility of the precipitous and poorly maintained mountain road that has so far sheltered it from exploitation, in addition to which, no-one but the Lepcha can own the land. The Homestay lodge in which we are staying is entirely owned and run by local people. It is Monday 28th November. The three of us have gone for a wander along the serpentine road that coils up out of the far side of the valley. It is late in the afternoon, and Purnabha and Lucina have decided to head back to the lodge. Already the light is failing down in the valley. I decide to carry on walking, racing the sunset as the road climbs steeply upward. Along the way I encounter local people, none of whom seem to have heard that a foreigner is in the valley. Eventually I am forced to turn back, disappointed that I have not made it to the top... but there is always tomorrow....

They remind us of what we, enslaved to what we call progress, have irrevocably lost. The Last Free People

And our Conscience.

But whether it is in India, South America or elsewhere in the world, the vanishing tribes haunt our dreams.