The World Through a Lens
Scattered Among the Himalaya, Glimpses of a Changing Tibet
An array of forces, including political suppression and the ubiquity of the internet, have made elements of traditional Tibetan lifestyles increasingly challenging.
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I was sitting inside the dark, yak-hair tent of a nomad family in Ladakh, in the Indian Himalaya. Outside, some scruffy sheep searched for greenery among the cold and barren moonscape, and large raptors circled in the thermals. As we huddled around the hearth, the old man handed me a small glass of salty, yak-butter tea.
“There were wolves here two nights ago,” he told me through a translator. “This time I chased them away, but they will come back again and try and get at my sheep. It’s happening more and more.”
“Everything about being a herder is getting more difficult,” he added. “Maybe my sons won’t want to continue this life. My wife and I might be among the last of the nomads here.”
It was a story I’d heard time and again across the Himalaya and the Tibetan plateau. Whether because of climatic changes, the call of a more comfortable life in the cities, political repression or the demands of education, life is changing fast for the people of Tibet and the surrounding Himalayan regions.
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