The Ladakh Project
Counter-Development on the Tibetan Plateau
In this section:
'Little Tibet'
Food and Farming
Renewable Energy
The Women's Alliance of Ladakh
Education and Cultural Exchange
Learning from Ladakh (formerly 'The Farm Project')
Mindful Travel in Ladakh
Health and Healing
Handicrafts
'Little Tibet'
Set deep in the Indian Himalayas on the western edge of the Tibetan plateau, Ladakh, or 'Little Tibet', is one of the highest and driest inhabited places on earth. This is an extremely harsh environment, yet for centuries it was home to a rich and self-sustaining culture. "Life was very simple, but people always had enough, and more than anything they were happy", says Tashi Rabgyas, Ladakh's leading poet, scholar and philosopher.
Then, in the early 1970s, came 'development'. The first roads into the area brought heavily subsidised goods as well as idealised images of western consumer culture - undermining the local economy and eroding cultural self-esteem. The result has been increasing community and family breakdown, unemployment, sprawling urban slums and pollution.
Since 1975, ISEC has been providing Ladakhi leaders with information about the impact of conventional development in other parts of the world while exploring more sustainable patterns of development in Ladakh itself, based on the use of local resources and indigenous knowledge.
There are clear signs that our efforts are bearing fruit. In recent years, a renewed sense of confidence has emerged, and the Ladakhi people are beginning to regain control over their own future.
Food and Farming
For centuries, the traditional economy in Ladakh was founded on agriculture. Communities provided for their own needs, depending on long-distance trade only for luxuries.
Development, however, is creating a dependence not only on chemical fertilisers and pesticides (some of which are outlawed in the West), but also on cash cropping and subsidised food. In so doing, it is undermining the entire culture.
ISEC is helping Ladakhi farmers to resist these pressures. At the same time, we are raising awareness about the importance of diversified production for local consumption.
Our work includes:
- A seed-saving programme to promote the cultivation and protection of local varieties of grains and legumes.
- Networking with farmers' groups elsewhere in the South.
- Tours of sustainable farms in the West for Ladakhi farmers' representatives.
- An ongoing campaign about the hazards of pesticides, fungicides and chemical fertilisers.
- A wide range of meetings, from 'hands-on' village workshops to international conferences.
- The introduction and demonstration of solar greenhouses, enabling villagers to grow vegetables the year round. (There are now thousands throughout the entire region.)
"Most Ladakhis used to put chemical fertilisers and pesticides on their fields without thinking. Now, thanks to ISEC's campaigns, it's very different. People are turning towards local and organic methods."
Tsewang Rigzin, long-time President of LEDeG
Renewable Energy
ISEC has played a central role in reducing the Ladakhis' dependence on imported and expensive fossil fuels.
Working closely with the Ladakh Ecological Development Group (LEDeG) - an indigenous NGO we founded in 1978 - we have developed and demonstrated numerous small-scale, energy-saving technologies, most of which can be built and maintained locally. These include:
- Hydraulic ram pumps for lifting irrigation and drinking water.
- Solar room-heating systems to combat the freezing winters.
- Solar water heaters and cookers.
- Photovoltaic power for lighting.
- Micro-hydro installations and small wind turbines for electricity production.
This work has helped to generate something of a renewable energy revolution in Ladakh. Many of the technologies have been taken up on a large scale by government and other voluntary agencies.
LEDeG itself is now an entirely independent organisation, with a staff of more than 100 Ladakhis. In 1993, when Ladakh was granted semi-autonomous status by the central Indian government, three out of five of its founding executive councillors were former LEDeG directors.
The Women's Alliance of Ladakh
As in other parts of the world, the new economic pressures in Ladakh have marginalised women, who tend to be left behind on the farm as men and young people flock to the city in search of jobs and schooling. Women's decision-making power decreases while their work load increases.
In 1994, ISEC helped to establish the Women's Alliance of Ladakh (WAL), with the twin goals of raising the status of rural women and strengthening local culture and agriculture. Since then, WAL's membership has swelled to over 6,000 women from almost 100 different villages.
The Alliance's work covers a wide range:
- Annual festivals celebrating local knowledge and skills, including traditional spinning, weaving and dyeing and the preparation of indigenous food.
- Regular 'clean-up' campaigns aimed at encouraging community responsibility for the environment. (In 1998, WAL succeeded in banning the use of plastic bags.)
- Programmes - like their successful 'No TV' weeks - aimed at resisting the worst elements of non-Ladakhi culture.
"Only a few years ago women were considered backward and ignorant. Now we're respected as one of the most influential voices in Ladakh."
Dolma Tsering, member of WAL
Education and Cultural Exchange
A main focus of our work in Ladakh is to provide much-needed information about the real costs of conventional development. We also work to dispel some of the myths about life in the West that are so corrosive to cultural and individual self-esteem.
We sponsor Ladakhi community leaders to come to the West on 'reality tours', which serve to balance the glamorised image of modern, urban life that is spread through advertising, television and tourism. Such experiences enable the Ladakhis to make more informed choices about their own future.
"Spending time in the West showed me a side of Westerners I never imagined. I found that they have lots of money but they don't have time for each other. Many of them are looking for community and a life closer to nature - a Ladakhi lifestyle!"
Stanzin Tonyot, ISEC's Farm Project Co-ordinator
Our educational programme includes meetings, workshops, community theatre and radio programmes. We have also produced Ladakhi-language schoolbooks and the first Ladakhi-English dictionary. A Journey to New York - our 'counterdevelopment' comic book - has been used in schools throughout Ladakh.
We also run a tourist education programme. Daily showings of the Ancient Futures film (see below) draw more than 4,000 visitors every year. The film is followed by broad-ranging discussions with ISEC staff.
Learning from Ladakh (formerly 'The Farm Project')
This programme gives individuals of all nationalities the opportunity to live and work with Ladakhi families for a month or more during the growing season. The project provides invaluable insights into both the strengths of the traditional culture and the forces threatening to undermine it. It is often a life-changing experience, which leads to renewed optimism and a commitment to action for change back home.
"Advertising and the mass media pressure us all to live a consumer lifestyle that can never lead to happiness. I now know that another way of life is possible."
Thomas McMillan (22), Farm Project participant, 2000
For more information on the Learning from Ladakh project click here.
Mindful Travel in Ladakh
Ladakh had been isolated for
centuries and then was suddenly thrown open to development including tourism.This
development has brought many changes to the previously peaceful, prosperous
and largely self-reliant culture of Ladakh. Junk food, plastic consumer
goods, pollution, and toxics including DDT and asbestos have come to the
region as part of this process. Just as dramatic as these environmental
impacts have been the psychological effects of Western-style education,
television and advertising, all of which glamorize an urban consumer life-style,
giving the impression that life in the West is one of limitless wealth and
leisure. The influx of tourists has added to the impression that life in
the West is infinitely better than in Ladakh. Tourists will often spend
the same amount in a day that a whole family in a Ladakhi village might
spend in a year. As a consequence, Ladakhis, particularly the young people,
feel that their lifestyle seems poor and backward. Tourists, in turn, often
unwittingly reinforce these feelings and insecurities. Having no way of
knowing the degree to which Ladakhis have traditionally been self-reliant,
they are often horrified to hear of daily wages as low as five dollars,
or of an absence of electricity. Generally, neither tourists nor Ladakhis
reflect on the fact that money plays a completely different role in the
West, where it’s needed for basic survival.
These misunderstandings are born of a lack of complete
information and real communication between tourists and Ladakhis. We have
found that greater knowledge about what is happening around the world, not
isolationism, is the surest way for Ladakhis to take control over their
own future. Recognizing that tourism is a powerful agent of change, we make
great efforts to reach out to visitors to invite them to participate in
solutions at every level: from cultural awareness, to ecologically sensitive
behavior, to supporting alternatives both in Ladakh and in their own home
communities.
The Tourism for Change Program
has been designed to address this knowledge gap and foster greater understanding
about the root causes of cultural breakdown and about strategic solutions.
The specific objectives are:
- To introduce tourists to Ladakh
past and present.
- To sensitize tourists to their impact during their stay in Ladakh and
give them guidelines for culturally, economically and ecologically responsible
behavior.
- To encourage tourists to make the links between changes in Ladakh and
those experienced at home.
The focal point of the program is a daily workshop that includes a screening
of ISEC’s Ancient Futures film, followed by a discussion
led by ISEC staff or volunteers. To see the Ancient Futures video, please
come to the Women’s Alliance Centre in Leh at 3:30pm on any day except
Sunday.
Since we began running the program over a decade ago we have reached roughly
3,000 tourists from all around the world each year. Letters we have received
— sometimes years later — indicate that the effect is deep and
long-lasting.
For Visitors
to Ladakh
Click HERE
for more information
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Download the 'Mindful Travel in Ladakh' brochureHealth and Healing
For more than two decades ISEC has been helping Ladakh's traditional doctors, or amchis, to keep their ancient knowledge alive. We have:
- Sponsored students to study at the Dalai Lama's Institute for Traditional Medicine in Dharamsala.
- Established a Centre for Amchi Medicine in Leh, Ladakh's capital.
- Funded meetings and training workshops in remote villages.
Handicrafts
In collaboration with the Ecological Development Group and the Ladakh Environment and Health Organisation (another NGO we helped to found), we have set up handicrafts co-operatives and training centres in villages throughout the region, giving farming families the ability to earn a cash income without having to leave the land. The crafts are sold during the summer season to foreign tourists.
"Our work is not about putting a wall around cultures. On the contrary, it is about establishing closer contact between the most and least industrial parts of the world. We have found that this contact is genuinely empowering, and can help to strengthen communities in both North and South."
Helena Norberg-Hodge, ISEC Director
For her work as Director of the Ladakh Project, Helena Norberg-Hodge shared the 1986 Right Livelihood Award, otherwise known as the 'Alternative Nobel Prize'
ANCIENT |
Since it was first published in 1991, Ancient Futures: Learning from Ladakh, by Helena Norberg-Hodge, has become an international grassroots best seller. Part anthropology, part uncompromising critique, it raises fundamental questions about the whole notion of progress, and serves as a source of inspiration for our own future. Together with an award-winning film of the same title by John Page, Ancient Futures has been translated into more than thirty languages - from Spanish to Burmese, Czech to Navajo. People around the world have told us, "This is our story too." "The inspirational classic." -Rider Books "An extraordinary film ... compelling viewing." -Times Educational Supplement |