Pemba Lepcha Agroforestry

In the sacred reserve of Dzongu in northern Sikkim, Pemba Lepcha tends ancestral large black cardamom and cloud-mist tea bushes under a dense Himalayan alder forest canopy. The symbiotic relationship between the alder roots and the cardamom plants fixes nitrogen naturally, while cool glacier runoff provides constant pure hydration. The harvested pods are dried over aromatic wild rhododendron and oak embers inside earthen bhattis.