Ladakhi
Climate Change Affects Ladakh
A news report on The Weather Channel website last week summarized evidence showing that global climate change is starting to destroy the cultural heritage of Ladakh. Though not all Ladakhis agree with the causes of the destruction, historic structures are being weakened and destroyed by the changing weather conditions. In order to cope with increasingly […]
Tourism Declines in Ladakh
Many peaceful societies have learned how to contend with tourists. People welcome them into their communities, build businesses and festivals to attract their money, and try to figure out how to preserve their own ways in the face of visitors and their need to be entertained. Ladakh is a good example of a society that […]
The Birthday of the Buddha and Peacefulness
The 2563rd birthday of the Buddha was celebrated in Leh, Ladakh, on May 18th with the usual fervor, according to articles in The Dispatch and the Daily Excelsior, two news sources in that part of India.. Organized by the Ladakh Buddhist Association, the day started with a procession called the “Bumskor” that began at the […]
Ice Stupa Competition
Sonam Wangchuk has come up with an approach for promoting the effective conservation of scarce water resources in Ladakh. In 2014, the well-known Ladakhi engineer and his students developed a way for villages to store water from the snows and rains of winter until the planting season of spring when it is really needed. They […]
Political Unrest in Ladakh
The two Ladakhi districts have passed separate resolutions demanding that the state of Jammu and Kashmir create a separate division for them. A news story in the Indian Express on December 8 indicated that feelings are strong throughout Ladakh for the proposed separation. On December 1, the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council, Leh, unanimously passed […]
Ladakhi Village Preserves its History
Despite being kicked back and forth between Pakistan and India, the 3,300 residents of the village of Turtuk are determined to continue their traditional lives and culture. Turtuk, located in the northwest section of the Leh District of Ladakh, was part of India until the 1947 war, then part of Pakistan after the war but […]
An Uproar over Sexual Harassment
Leh, the town that serves as capital of Ladakh, was in an uproar last week because some policemen sexually harassed a couple female students. The heavy-handed response by police officials attempting to cover up the crime and their repressive approach to the complainers prompted outrage among many Ladakhi women. The incident was described in the […]
Ladakhis Cherish Cranes
The environment and conservation website Mongabay.com posted a news story last week on the threats that feral dogs are posing to the survival of black-necked cranes. The reporter, Athar Parvaiz, discusses the damage that wild dogs do to the crane eggs and the chicks in the nests, as well as to other wildlife in the […]
Deterring Gender Violence in Ladakh
The Hindustan Times reported last week that the second year of kung fu self-defense training for Ladakhi girls and young women has just concluded at the Hemis Monastery near Leh. The news story, and the reports on Facebook by the organizer of the event, Live to Love India, provided information about the purposes of kung […]
The Dalai Lama Visits Ladakh
His Holiness the Dalai Lama flew to Leh on July 3rd in order to spend 19 days in Ladakh, which included a celebration of his 83rd birthday on Friday the 6th. Four different local news sources covered the story—The Statesman, The Kashmir Monitor, Phayul.com, and Scoop News—emphasizing in different ways the mutual respect that the […]
