More than 90 percent of the people live on subsistence farming, scattered in sparsely populated villages across the rugged terrain of the Himalayas. With rice as the staple diet in the lower regions, and wheat, buckwheat, and maize in the other valleys, the people farm narrow terraces cut into steps on hill slopes. The Bhutanese are by nature physically strong and fiercely independent with an open and ready sense of humor. Hospitality is an inbuilt social value in Bhutan. Bhutan has three main ethnic groups known as Sharchops, Ngalong and the Lhotsampas. Sharchops are the earliest residents of Bhutan who generally reside in the eastern region.