Ladakh - a global model
'Every year, more than 10,000 tourists visit Ladakh,' writes Helena Norberg-Hodge, who has worked among the Ladakhis in Kashmir, on the borders of Tibet, for the last 14 years. 'The picture most Ladakhis have of life in the West is a very distorted one. Having seen it only in its seemingly attractive form of digital watches and camera-laden tourists (who spend - in the Ladakhi context - the equivalent of $150,000 a day!), by contrast their own lives seem slow, primitive and inefficient. They are made to feel stupid for being farmers, and for getting their hands dirty. Our educational programme is helping to correct some of these misconceptions. We are showing them the parallels between the new 'post-industrial' age of which Westerners speak and what they - the Ladakhis - already have. We have to encourage young Ladakhis to maintain respect for their own culture.'
'The picture most Ladakhis have of life in the West is a very distorted one. Having seen it only in its seemingly attractive form of digital watches and camera-laden tourists (who spend - in the Ladakhi context - the equivalent of $150,000 a day!), by contrast their own lives seem slow, primitive and inefficient'
Her newsletter tells how progress has been maintained. The son-in-law of Ladakh's Queen has become full-time director of the Ladakh Ecological Development Group, and his wife is coordinator of its handicrafts programme. There is increasing demand for the Ladakh Project's solar greenhouses, Trombe walls, ram pumps and improved water mills. The exhibition at the Centre for Ecological Development in Leh provides a graphic representation of how life could be in Leh if development is not carefully controlled. There is also a game which allows children to see the effects of increasing economic dependence on the outside world. A new indigenous group has started called the Students' Educational and Cultural Movement of Ladakh, founded primarily as a means of promoting the traditional culture. Its young founders, all in their 20s, come from the very segment of Ladakhi society which is most at risk from the region's modernisation.
Helena Norberg-Hodge is sometimes available to give lectures or slide shows about Ladakh in the UK. She makes a most interesting presentation of her subject.
Helena Norberg-Hodge, the Ladakh Project, 21 Victoria Square, Clifton, Bristol BS8 4LS, tel 0272 731575. Above item excerpted from 'How to Save the World' (available from the Institute for L4-95 incl. p&p) and from the Ladakh Project Winter '89 newsletter (available for a donation from the Ladakh Project). Also available from the Ladakh Project are a video 'Development, a Better Way?' (L20) and other publications: 'Ladakh in a Global Context - Energy', 'Ecological Steps Towards a Sustainable Future' and 'Ecology and Principles for Sustainable Development', all at L5 each; and, for a donation, a short pamphlet, 'Guidelines for Visitors to Ladakh'.
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