Alternative Futures

Lobzang is from Zanskar, a subdivision under Kargil district, Ladakh, and located in between Leh, Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh.

Lobzang is very worried about climate change, noting that Zanskar is the largest fresh water resource in the whole of Ladakh. “We can see climate change with our naked eye, the snowline is receding, glaciers too have less water. But the people don’t know how to make sense of this and don’t understand the complexity of climate change.”

Part of his efforts to address climate change involve glacier restoration, for the glaciers are reducing “at an immense pace”. He has built ice stupas, a way of retaining water for the drier summer season.

Lobzang is also concerned about tourism, that Zanskar will suffer a similar fate to nearby Leh and Kargil as it is on the threshold of being opened to the world of mass tourism through the simultaneous construction of three new roads. “We have a unique landscape and trekking routes but we’ve seen with our neighbours what package tourism does.” In June, he started a movement in Zanskar to mobilise and sensitise people to the magnitude of the imminent problem of greater numbers of tourists and consider what could be done differently; “As a community we can make it harder for package tourism to come by making it cost more. We have no problem with backpackers. We can give incentives to local travel agencies.” He is also hoping that many small homestays will replace the construction of big new hotels, for in the tourist industry a lot of the money is usually grabbed only by a few people.

He is also concerned about preserving the heritage and the culture of his parents’ generation who, he notes, “were always sustainable.”

Traditionally, people would only fish when it was needed for food, and only the oldest cattle would be slaughtered, with prayers for forgiveness. It’s an attitude which some of the youth have lost, so he hopes a generational bridge can be built so that living in harmony with nature can continue.

Last year he helped revive a dying local craft: that of making rope bridges over the freezing and torrential rivers with honeysuckle vines. Zanskar has some unique heritage, including breeds of horses and ponies that have evolved for high altitude living. They are prized for the work they have been doing in a car-less society, but Lobzang is worried about what will happen to them now that the automobile is taking over.

Auroville, he says, “is making me think. Everywhere I see biodiversity and trees that have returned.” While here, he is learning about different possible models of living, alternative futures. “In Zanskar we can still decide whether to have a distributed model of wealth, conservation laws, and adopt sustainable interventions to treat our waste and sewage. If there is one place where I could get a glimpse of that to take back home, it is Auroville.”

He mentions how impacted he was by Wasteless (a waste management programme initiated in Auroville) and their work in educating kids. “In Zanskar we need a bridge for our society to prepare for what is coming, and children are that bridge. Can we come up with a model for the Himalayan region and equip them well enough so that these children can exert pressure for change?”

Lobzang was also able to witness how we as a community responded to the Crown road clearances just months before his own region will be impacted by its own ‘development’. He attended the large community meeting in Kalabhoomi and experienced the feeling of unity and care for the future that was there.

The ALE exchanges were always intended to be two-way. Now Lobzang will host a few Aurovilians: film maker Serena and photographer Sri are already planning to visit Zanskar soon.

Dave, one of the initiators of the Auroville Learning Exchange, feels the project is important as through it we learn from those who come from afar and Auroville, in turn, passes on some of our lived experience in sustainability and how we meet challenges. “ALE is intensely personal for me, because I see that without constant new people, ideas and inspiration we are dead”. More exchanges like this will be mutually enriching.