Pings, Pongs, and the Caste System -- by Otto Pierce

Ping-Pong. It is a game of spin and placement, incredulous players when shots go awry, and constant scorekeeping. The methodical ping and pong of the hollow white ball as it curves and cruises over the net, exciting spirits and inciting laughter. Friendly competition, fiery competition, fun, fun, fun competition.

In Ladakh, a remote kingdom in far north India, lies the campus of Secmol. Nestled in between the towering and powerful Himalayas the campus is a bustle of student life, and a model of green living. Secmol is a place of learning and working, but also a place of play, games, and fun. One of those games is ping-pong.
Here at Secmol anyone can play, and most do. There are beginners and seasoned veterans with blazing ‘power shots’. The blue table has a dulled and chipped white border, and is fully broken in half. To add to the ragged look, one of those halves has most of the end broken off, but somehow the table is set up anyway. In stark contrast is the new set of paddles and balls. In the soft fluorescent light of the ‘ping-pong room,’ the set seems to practically gleam, taking over the job of the old and well-worn set. At the worn blue table no one is ever told that they can’t play, or that they have to go last every time. There is no discrimination on the basis of wealth or social status. Unfortunately this is not entirely true to all aspects of Ladakhi life.
Secmol is an anomaly in Ladakh. It is a place where all students from the hierarchical social system in Ladakh can be on the same level with each other, and work together to run a campus. Step outside the boundaries of Secmol however and those relationships break down. In Ladakh there exists a caste system, or rather the remnants of a caste system. It still dictates social opinion and friendships in Ladakhi culture, but because both the Indian constitution and the Dali Lama’s condemnation, it is only to a degree in most Ladakhi households. The three lower castes are the Mons (Musicians descended from the Aryans), smiths, and Bedas (Musicians as well, who arrived later than the Mons to Ladakh, and are both Buddhists and Muslims as opposed to just Buddhists like the Mons). The middle caste is called the Mang-rigs, and the upper castes consist of the very wealthy families (Sku-drag) as well as the ones with royal bloodlines (Rgyal-rigs). Ironically, even thought all of the higher castes look down upon the Mons and the Bedas they cannot have a festival or event without them.
When the rigs-ngan (the three lower castes) are invited to a festival or a gathering they are made to sit at the end of a special seating order called the gral. The gral is a seating order that dictates where people sit by age, rank, and caste. Nowhere is the issue of caste seen more prominently that in the gral. As you could imagine though, it also has the potential to create a lot of controversy if someone is place lower than they think they should, or someone of a lower caste is placed higher than them because that person holds a very high military rank. Perhaps the most interesting part to the whole controversy is that many Ladakhis deny that they acknowledge caste at all, and they say that the only reason the rigs-ngan sit at the end of the line is so that they can fit their drums. However, when they are not provided a mat to sit on, they have to bring their own dining ware, and the higher castes wont eat the food they bring, it is apparent that Ladakhis only say they don’t recognize caste. It is true though that caste has become less of an issue than in the past, and some if the rigs-ngan are breaking out of their castes by getting an education. Maybe though, the best solution to settle the problem would be for them to all just play ping-pong together.