Our Sangha

What We Represent

Misty mountain landscape representing the communities and natural landscapes of Tribal Sangha Since the time of their ancestors, they have held a deep belief that every living being is spiritually connected to the four elements — earth, air, fire, and water. These are the very forces that breathe life into the mountain forests, restore what is depleted, and sustain the entire living ecosystem. The very art of traditional distillation has always moved in harmony with these same forces — it is not merely a method, but a way of being.

Aromatic grass cultivated on a hillside as part of the traditional farming practices supported by Tribal Sangha It begins with the earth — in organic cultivation of crops on rich, mountain soil.

Harvested aromatic plants being carried by hand from hillside fields for traditional essential oil distillation Once harvested, the yield is carried by hand to their traditional distillation stills, nestled deep within the forest hills.

Traditional distiller working with an aromatic plant still in a hillside distillation shed The plant matter is placed into the still and slowly coaxed with fresh mountain water and the steady heat of dry firewood that burns beneath a mud furnace.

Misty mountain farmland representing the hillside forest landscapes where Sangha crops are cultivated The mountain air drifts in and settles over the rising essence, giving it a distinct sharpness that belongs entirely to the memory of the place.

Traditionally distilled essential oil held at a Sangha farm after small-batch steam distillation The wait, every time, is worth it.

But this craft, ancient and irreplaceable, now stands endangered.

Our Challenges

Commercial markets and giant industries have flooded every corner with synthetic, lab-manufactured, look-alike fragrance oils, selling them at dirt-cheap prices and at high production volumes. Their purpose is simple: to make the work of traditional farmers cultivating medicinal and aromatic crops organically in the fields, and distillers making pure, unadulterated essential oils, in small, limited, quality-maintained batches, using slow, time-honored methods — economically unviable.

The impact was swift and widespread, especially across the Western Ghats, but also in the Himalayas. Word spread of communities that had distilled for generations — now abandoning their mud-thatched sheds in the regions of Kerala; and in places like Ooty, Nilgiris, where dozens of traditional huts, producing pure eucalyptus essential oils since British colonial times, were now just ghost sheds, taken over by the overgrowth of weeds and wild thistles.

Traditional mud and leaf eucalyptus distillation hut used for age-old essential oil making

The very same people that once left their ancestral way of life, but carried a part of it with them — the old distillation craft that was the last remaining thread connecting them to where they came from — in hopes of practicing it not as a relic of the past, but as the essence of a lived experience, were now left with no choice but to abandon their stills, their craft and their inheritance, in search of something more certain.

The last few that remained felt it too. The weight of it settled over them as well, and for a time, they stood close to the same decision — to walk away from a memory they held close to their spirit by living it, and let it vanish and be forgotten, never to be remembered by anyone alive.

The Way of the Sangha

It was then we stepped in as a facilitator, while witnessing this helpless dilemma being faced by traditional distillers all around the Western Ghats, but also in the North, in the Himalayan region.

Through our efforts to conserve, preserve, and sustain their livelihood by practicing their ancient craft, we gathered them one by one — one region at a time — first in the Western Ghats and then in the Himalayas, and set up a foundation of Sangha, so that they can keep alive the memory of their distant ancestors and preserve it by practicing this ancient tradition of steam distillation, using tribal stills in the Western Ghats and age-old distilleries in the Himalayan region.

Traditional distiller tending the wood fire beneath a still during slow steam distillation process

This is the foundation of Tribal Sangha today. What it means, represents and preserves is found in the very act of helping local traditional distillers keep their identity attached to the memory of this craft.

Being a facilitator of their products, we established two Sangha farms — one in the Himalayan alpine terrain and another at the Western Ghats. Together, they form a Sangha network that helps us better coordinate with traditional distillers across the Himalayas and the Western Ghats — making sure the cultivation, harvest, and distillation using the same age-old traditional methods are carried out sequentially, where each Sangha member is involved in carrying forward the process swiftly on their own without any outside hindrance or industrial impact.

The essential oils from our Sangha farms are displayed on our brand website and social marketplace, allowing us to price the product while accounting for all the expenses and the efforts behind producing each essential oil through the slow, mindful art of the traditional process. Every excess profit made is shared equally at the end of each year. The rest goes toward caring for the sick, supporting farmers and distillers in our Sangha farms who have suffered losses from crop failure, and toward setting up new traditional stills — keeping the roots of this craft firmly in the ground.

Our Ambition

Young community member gathering aromatic plants in a cultivated field as part of the living agricultural heritage of the Sangha We have only just begun. And with your support — not merely as a customer, but as someone who sees the value in what is real and worth protecting — we hope to preserve this art for the generations that come after theirs.