Mick Hartley

From a Big Picture feature, Scenes from Kashmir:

[Photo: Channi Anand/AP]

A delightful portrait. But here's the caption:

An Aryan Brogpa woman, wearing traditional outfit, pauses in Darchik, Jammu and Kashmir state. The Brogpas, or Dards, or Drokpas, as they are also known, claim to be pure-blooded Aryans and have been the subjects of study and debate among historians and researchers. Brogpas are prohibited from marrying outside their community to preserve their racial purity.

What??  

From a 2004 article:

Literally meaning mountain dwellers (Brog means a hillock, while Pa stands for an inhabitant), the Brogpas are said to be descendants of the Dards, of Indo-Aryan stock, who came down the Indus centuries ago. For years they have been guarding their purity by preventing inter-caste marriages that are considered dangerous for the cultural health of the race. They have also been religiously pursued by foreigners who are crazy about a pure Aryan progeny. Off and on there have been reports of German women sneaking into the area in the hope that a Brogpa would seer [sic] her child. Invariably they have had to return dejected, at least so say the local police and Army authorities. What makes Ladakh’s "pure blooded Aryans" so special? One is cautioned by a Army man, "Don’t pester them too much with queries about their lineage. There are no records to prove their claims but they firmly believe in their Aryan origin. Often, they inspire a similar belief in others. This pure Aryan cluster is visited more by researchers and besotted foreigners than by domestic tourists."

I'd never heard of the Brogpas. But I've heard of pure-blooded Aryans.