Layap

The Layap (Dzongkha: ལ་ཡཔ་) are an indigenous people inhabiting the high mountains of northwest Bhutan in the village of Laya, in the Gasa District, at an altitude of 3,850 metres (12,630 ft), just below the Tsendagang peak. Layaps also live in northern Thimphu (Lingzhi Gewog) and Punakha Districts. Layaps are sometimes called Bjop (Dzongkha: འབྱོགཔ་; "nomad") by the Bhutanese, a term some consider condescending. Their population in 2003 stood at 1,100. Ethnically related to the Tibetans, they speak Layakha, a Tibeto-Burman language. Layaps refer to their homeland as Be-yul – "the hidden land."