God’s voice in the mountain

The Walangi Valley is confined between two lofty mountain ranges in the Himalayas. Amid the harsh conditions found between heights of 2130 m and 4260 m, live 23,500 Walangi people in 54 small hamlets generally made up of 25 to 40 houses each.

Two young men trudged wearily into a Walangi hamlet in 2006. Mano and Das had traveled at least 14 hours over treacherous mountain roads from the nearest train station, praying all the way. Would they be permitted to stay? Only God could open this door. Some evangelists had visited the Walangi Valley in 2000. But the wary villagers discovered their intentions and violently chased them out. No one had tried again – till Mano and Das obediently responded to God’s call.

They introduced themselves to the hamlet’s governing body as linguists who would like to live among them to study their language. Could they stay? The committee conferred amongst themselves for a while. Their answer was “yes”. Thus, the pioneering work began.

In 2016, the first Walangi from a language community that was 100 per cent non-Christian professed faith in Christ. There is now a crack in the spiritual wall of resistance.