Trains, Prehistoric Caves, and Disappearing Indigenous Tribes

Trains are awesome no matter what country you're in. There's something about riding along the rails as the countryside slides past your window that is forever exciting and makes you feel like a child, so full of wonder. As part of our journey from Fort Kochi to Kalpetta, Wayanad, in the north of Kerala, we took a train and then later a bus. Our three and a half hour journey passed quickly between blog writing, sightseeing out the window, and catching the eye of the various samosa and tea sellers wandering the train cars. 

We spent two nights and a day in the northern region of Wayanad. Even though this area isn't on the main trail for most foreign travelers, it gets quite a lot of indigenous travelers. The Wayanad area is best known for the Edakkal caves and indigenous populations. The Edakkal Caves (there are three; two with carvings, but only one open to the public) are prehistoric rock shelters containing petroglyphs. These petroglyphs are carved into the local sandstone and contain evidence about cultures that might have been living in the area as far back as 6,000 BC. The caves are located on an ancient trade route that went from Mysore to the Malabar Coast. These Stone Age carving are the only such ones found to date in Southern India.

Not only are there pictures on the walls of the shelter we got to visit, but also a series of writings in two different scripts. When the caves were discovered, they excited anthropologists from all over and helped to tie together other, similar sites found around the country.

After our slightly strenuous hike (a kilometer trek straight up a road, then a series of man made rock stairs, and finally, a series of staircases) to visit the caves, we were originally scheduled to go on a nature walk through an animal sanctuary and see some elephants. Due to an unfortunate accident a while back, that area is now considered off limits. As a consolation prize, our guide took us on a nature walk through the villages of two of the many different tribes that live in the Wayanad region.

The indigenous tribes that make their homes in the Wayanad region used to be the original inhabitants of the area. They were a hunter-gather society that was mostly nomadic. When the British came to India and created roads into the area, it increased traffic and migration of outsiders who flocked to the fertile lands. As a result of the increased number of outsiders settling in the region, the aboriginals lost much of their lands and their numbers dwindled dramatically. Today there are still quite a few tribes left, but their numbers are devastatingly small and their cultures are in danger of becoming extinct as they become sedentary and influenced by modernization.

We first walked through the small village of the Paniyas people. While the tribe still clings to its roots, with its own customs and language, it has started to move into the modern world with the addition of sedentary homes and government funded schools. Many of the villagers were shy, yet curious of the foreigners wandering through their village. They would hide in their homes and just poke their heads out the doors to view the strangers; giggling when you looked at them. Others were more brave or just unaffected and went about their days business, unperturbed by the interlopers. 

We stopped at one home and were given a demonstration on pottery making using river clay and a stick powered turning wheel. Olivia, a British girl in our group, gave the pot making a shot and ended up with a lopsided and bottomless flower pot. I guess not everyone is cut out to be a potter.

We waved goodbye to the Paniyas people and headed through the forrest and across the rice, banana, and spice fields to visit the Kurumba people, all the while being lead by a quintuplet of local boys that thought we were hilarious and also a nice way to break up the monotony of everyday life. The Kurumba tribe is similar to the Paniyas in that they are an ancient indigenous group, but they also have moved into the modern day and age. We even saw one house with satellite tv. The neat thing about this group though is that the tribe is one big family. There is a central meeting/ceremonial building that is surrounded by all the homes of the tribal/family members. 

Towards the end of the tour, we went to the home of the village pharmacist. The family that lived there has been the holistic doctor of the tribe for generations. They showed us their prescription book (words scratched onto banana leafs and then joined together) and some other artifacts that they still use today.

The whole adventure was very unique and different, but kind of weird. In today's day and age where everyone is running around with their eyes glued to a camera lens and half the time never taking the time to fully appreciate a site because they're running off to gather their next Flikr or Instagram Selfie, it's odd to walk through someone else's life and start trying to capture it on film, without feeling like your dismissing the villagers as real people. 

For many of these villages, the denizens never see what they look like unless it's in a reflection from glass or a body of water. So those that don't shy away from our cameras are eager to see their portraits, but to them it's a novelty. They lead simple lives and their main interactions with outsiders are these random village visits and occasional government aid workers. I wonder what they must think of us as we come clicking through their homes and then vanish again. Do they envious us, think we're crazy, or do they just assume that we're a short lived interruption that comes and goes, but has no real baring on anything?