Origin and identity of the Brokpa of Dah-Hanu, Himalayas – an NRY-HG L1a2 (M357) legacy

Background: The Brokpas are an isolated tribal population of the Dah-Hanu villages of the Leh district of India. They speak Dardic, a sub-branch of the Indo-European language family, and are putatively identified as “pure Aryan,” a hegemonic impression perpetuated by foreign tourism. Aim: To determine if the above is true by looking for an appreciable frequency of NRY-HG-R1a1(M17) signatures which are common to Indo-European language speakers of mainland India and elsewhere. Subjects and methods: We studied 75 random Brokpa males from the Dah-Hanu region, on the northern bank of the Indus river. Results: Interestingly, the Brokpa males possessed a high proportion of NRY-HG-L1a2(M357) (62.7%) that are found sporadically in India and her neighbourhood. A global analysis of this clade (present study, 214 of 3327 men from 63 populations; from the literature 56 of 873) suggested that they originated from southern India. Conclusion: The Y chromosomal studies suggest the Brokpa to be pre-Vedic settlers of the Himalayas, 9000 ybp, with an isolated evolution. The mtDNA profile shows a predominance of mtDNA HG A4 that must have arrived from outside the Indian subcontinent.