Learning from Ladakh
Norberg-hodge, H.
People and the Planet 3(3): 32-33
1994
ISSN/ISBN: 0968-1655 PMID: 12345840 Document Number: 287011
The Ladakh Project and the Ladakh Ecological Development Group seek to restore the balance between humans and nature that existed in this Buddhist region before 1974, when the Indian Government introduced tourism and development. Traditional practices, such as polyandrous marriage, having at least one family member become a nun or monk, and adapting family size to the resource base, had led to low population growth. However, the monetary economy introduced by the Indian Government undermined the Ladakhis relationship with their environment, gave an illusion of unlimited resources through import, pulled people into housing colonies in the capital, and replaced mutual aid with competition. The various ethnic groups in the region are trying for jobs and political power, and the population is increasing as these groups seek to enhance their relative power. The Ladakh projects are working to debunk idealized notions of the Western life-style, reinstate the cultural norms of interconnectedness and mutual aid, and create a development model based on the decentralized community-based economy.