At Sumdo, Rupsho : With Aba Dorjey Tsetup , Now 86

Dorjey Tsetup is a Tibetan refugee and a former professional gold miner, known in Tibet as a Thokpa. He has lived in India since 1959, after fleeing Tibet, abandoning his ancestral profession as a gold miner.

In Tibet, Dorjey worked in a goldfield located in his native village of Mugnak. The site was widely known as Mugnak Thok: the Mugnak Goldfield. According to him, the hamlet of Mugnak lay approximately two days by horseback from Rudok.

Gold mining at Mugnak was carried out solely by the local villagers. Each family had its own assigned pit from which gold-bearing soil was extracted. A miner would be securely tied to a rope and carefully lowered into these vertical shafts, often more than 20 feet deep.

Inside, the miner would use animal horns to dig out chunks of earth, which were then pulled up by family members stationed at the surface.

This demanding work continued year-round. During the harsh winters, when the soil became frozen and unyielding, miners employed a traditional method to soften it: they would burn large quantities of dried animal dung at the bottom of the pit overnight. The fire’s heat would thaw the earth by morning, allowing the digging to resume. Since the interiors of these pits remained dark even in broad daylight, miners relied on lamps fueled by animal fat for illumination underground.

Dorjey recalls regularly descending into these pits on behalf of his family. Once the soil reached the surface, it was crushed into finer granules using animal horns. The loosened earth was then washed to separate out the gold. Water for this process had to be fetched from a faraway river known as Changding Tso, and was transported in bags made from sheepskin. The washing itself took place in wooden trays called Jhongba, traditionally used for gold panning.

Despite the strenuous labour involved, the amount of gold recovered was typically modest. The gold was never exchanged for cash. Instead, it was bartered with local Chukpo: wealthy livestock owners in Rudok, in return for basic necessities such as meat, butter, or cheese.