Malana, the strangest village I've ever visited.
The trail to Malana was beautiful. Although picturesque, Malana is wierd. You must not touch anything in the village, not even the people. If you touch something, you are fined 1000 rupies. As far as I understand it, this is not a punitive fine. It is simply the cost of a goat. You see, they need to sacrifice a goat and use it's blood to clean whatever you touched. Any foreigner is seen as an outcast, or "untouchable". Hence the touch thing.
When you buy anything from someone in Malana they put it on the ground a couple of feet from you. Then you put the money down on the ground a couple feet from them. Then everybody picks everything up.
Two youths were playing a game near me. I suppose one was being mean to the other in that he was trying to make him touch me.
The other thing about Malana is the drugs. Marajuana grows everywhere in Malana. In fact there seems to be more of it growing there than any other plant. Everyone in this town is on drugs, making drugs, selling drugs, even the children. They play with the plant like children anywhere else play with any other plant. It's just a natural part of life, and the economy of Malana.
Malana is a tiny village in the mountains with no roads. You have to hike for a day from Jari to get to it. They consider themselves to be a separate state. They have their own pecular legal system that ultimately decides guilt byt poisoning two goats. The owner of the first one to die is guilty. Theifs and murderers and bannished people who return are kicked off of a cliff with big stones attached to them.
The gene pool of Malana is small. They are only allowed to marry inside the village. If they marry an outsider they may never re-enter the village, although their offspring may.
80% of the children are not expected to live to 12 years.
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