Much before going to Malana village, I had read quite a lot about it. In my imagination, it was more like a old fairy tale village with friendly people and with beautiful architecture. I had high expectations from the place being very photogenic and was expecting this part to be the best part of our Chandrakhani pass trek. What I experienced is as follows...
Located at a height of 3029m, in the vicinity of Deo Tibba and Chandrakhani peaks, Malana is a small village in Parvati valley in Himachal Pradesh.
This was definitely one of the most unique villages that I have seen in India in many respects.
Just after entering the village, there was a small hotel with a board written in Israeli language. This place hosts many foreign visitors, most of who come in search for the most sought after - 'Malana cream' - a drug that comes from these valleys.
Oldest Democracy in the world
Malana is believed to be one of the oldest democracies in the world. There is a village-council of 11 members and they are believed to be the representatives of Jamlu Rishi, the village god. Any decision taken by them is considered to be final and abiding. Of late, many villagers were not happy with the decisions taken by the village-council and had approached the district court in Kullu to settle disputes. Since then, the council have stopped holding court and taking decisions.
Origin of Malana
There are several theories regarding the origin of the village. According to one thought, the villagers are the decedents of the Aryans. A story does that when emperor Akbar was suffering from a serious disease came to the village, the people of Malana were able to cure it. Akbar was so pleased that he gave tax-exemption to all the people residing in the village.
Another school of thought suggests that Malana was founded by remnants of Alexander the Great's Army. However, there is no link in the language between Greek and Kanashi.
Worth mentioning that the village of Dha-Hanu near Leh, Ladakh also believe the same
The Modern Malana Village
Contrary to what I had read, Malana is definitely affected by modern civilization, more than most of the interior villages in India. Almost every kid had a smartphone. In fact, some of the kids were checking their board exam results on their cellphones. The small village had an excellent 3G service which was very rare during the whole route of our trek. Every house had a dish antenna for the satellite television service.
Most of the houses were of brick and mortar with tin roofs replacing the traditional wooden houses with the beautiful engraving. The process started in the 1980s when the villagers became rich selling 'Malana cream'. After the fire in January 2008, all the houses that were reconstructed as modern houses since the cutting of trees are banned.
Language They Speak
The Malani speak Kanashi (a mixture of Tibetan and Sanskrit dialects) and they are very conservative about it.
Though the children of the village are discouraged to speak in any language other than their native language, times are changing with the advent of television. Like other kids, they all watch tv and can understand and speak in Hindi well.
On the vice versa, the people of other villages are discouraged to speak in Malani language even if they know it.
The main occupation of the villagers are farming and cattle rearing. The women are involved in weaving shawls.
The Malana Cream or Malana Crime
Malana Cream is the term given to the hashish grown here, which is one of the most sought after in the world. The police had launched a drive to stop the cultivation of cannabis. This has resulted in a steep decline in the number of tourists (mostly foreigners) in recent years who come in search of charas or hashish. Nowadays, the villagers are shifting to dense forests for cultivation. The villagers blame the government for their apathy as they lost their source of livelihood due to these restrictions.
I had read that it is available for sale in the village. When we were walking around, one of the villagers approached us if we were interested in buying some.
Some pictures -
The first view of the village. While we were going, we met a lot of foreigners walking up.












































How to go to Malana village
Though we covered Malana during our Chandrakhani pass trek, there were other easier alternatives. The nearest airport is Bhuntar 40kms away. Kullu and Manali are 50kms and 90 km respectively. The village is a steep 3km walk from the nearest motorable road.
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