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You are here: Home / Our Projects / Our Work in Ladakh / Local Futures’ History in Ladakh

Local Futures’ History in Ladakh

Set deep in the Indian Himalayas on the western edge of the Tibetan plateau, Ladakh, or “Little Tibet”, is one of the highest and driest inhabited places on earth. Yet for centuries it was home to a rich and self-sustaining culture. Then, in the 1970s, came ‘development,’ which undermined the local economy and eroded cultural self-esteem. The result has been increasing community and family breakdown, unemployment, sprawling urban slums and pollution.

Since 1978, Local Futures has been providing Ladakhis with information about the impact of conventional development in other parts of the world, while exploring more sustainable patterns of development in Ladakh itself, based on the use of local knowledge and resources. Local Futures has helped to establish and still collaborates with several important indigenous organizations in Ladakh, including the Ladakh Ecological Development Group (LEDeG), the Women’s Alliance of Ladakh, the Amchi Association, and the Ladakh Environment and Health Organisation (LEHO). LEDeG became the most influential non-governmental organization in the region and its Ecology Centre was inaugurated by Indira Gandhi in 1984 and consecrated by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. We ended up working in about 80 villages throughout the whole region. In the 1990’s, a semi-independent government was set up by leaders from our ecology group, with virtually identical goals to those of LEDeG.

Over the past four decades our work in Ladakh has also included hosting a wide range of meetings, from hands-on village workshops to international conferences. We have produced community theater, radio shows, Ladakhi language schoolbooks, the first Ladakhi-English dictionary, and an educational comic book, A Journey to New York, that has been used in schools throughout Ladakh.

Local Futures has also supported farmers in resisting the pressures of industrialized agriculture. We have organized tours for Ladakhi farmers to visit sustainable farms in other parts of South Asia and abroad, supported local campaigns about the hazards of pesticides and chemical fertilizers, and introduced solar greenhouses that enable villagers to grow vegetables year round.

We have painted a fuller picture of modern urban life, sharing information about the serious problems of crime, unemployment, loneliness, and alienation in the West. At the same time we have highlighted the various movements that seek to strengthen local economies and community, regenerate healthier agriculture, and foster a deeper connection to the living world.

As a means of tempering some of the idealized impressions of the industrialized world that come from advertising and the media, we have also run “reality tours” that bring Ladakhi leaders to the west to see firsthand the darker side of the consumer culture, as well as initiatives underway to make western societies more sustainable. Through this process, we have painted a fuller picture of modern urban life, sharing information about the serious problems of crime, unemployment, loneliness, and alienation in the West.

We have been able to highlight examples of people who had come to realize the emptiness and destructive nature of the urban consumer culture. The Ladakhis could hear from people about our spiritual, psychological, ecological and economic problems. At the same time we have highlighted the various movements that seek to strengthen local economies and community, regenerate healthier agriculture, and foster a deeper connection to the living world. The deeper dialogue between Westerners and Ladakhis led to the recognition that Ladakh, like other traditional, land-based communities, had a lot to offer these Western movements. This in turn helped young Ladakhis regain greater respect for their culture. A reality tour to London for two Ladakhi women was the focus of the documentary film Paradise With Side Effects.

The following articles provide more information about the negative impacts  of development in Ladakh, as well as our work to counter them:

  • Pressure to Modernise
  • The March of the Monoculture
  • Globalization and Terror
  • Rambo, Barbie and Wordsworth

Further Resources

Experiences in
Ladakh
2019

Find out more about our Mindful Futures workshops, Help with the Harvest and other projects.

Read more

Experiences in
Ladakh
2018

Read here about our Global to Local workshop and Media Literacy and Filmmaking workshop.

Read more

Experiences in
Ladakh
2017

Read more about our Mindful Futures workshops, Learning from Ladakh program and more…

Read more
  • Global to Local
    • International Alliance for Localization (IAL)
      • Join the IAL
      • IAL Members
        • IAL Member Organizations
        • IAL Listserv
      • Video Project: Voices from the IAL
    • Webinar Recordings
      • Sacred Activism in a Post-Trump World Webinar
      • Talking Climate Webinar
      • People Power: Democracy and the Economy Webinar
      • Beyond Trump: The Path to Real Change Webinar
      • Bringing the Food Economy Home Webinar
      • A World Without ‘Free’ Trade: What it would look like and how to get there
      • Beyond ‘Free Trade’ – Alternatives to Corporate Rule
      • Education: Promises, Myths & Realities Webinar
      • Debt and Speculation in the Global Economy Webinar
      • A New Activism Webinar
      • Climate Change or System Change Webinar
      • Going Local Webinar
    • Animation: Going Local: the solution-multiplier
    • Insane Trade Short Film and Factsheet
      • Insane Trade! & Factsheet Translated
    • Planet Local
      • Culture
      • Eco Communities
      • Ecology
      • Health
      • Local Business & Finance
      • Local Energy
      • Local Food, Farming & Fisheries
      • Local Policy & Community Rights
      • Place-based Education
      • Sharing & Repairing
      • Planet Local Short Film Series
        • 1 – Introduction: The New Local Food Movement
        • 2 – Diverse Farming Systems
        • 3 – Local Food Webs: Exploring Systems of Distribution
        • 4 – Local Food Processors: AKA Making Delicious Food
        • 5 – Challenges & Solutions
        • 6 – Ecovillages & Networks for New Farmers
        • 7 – And Finally… Here’s a Little More Inspiration
    • Local Bites Podcast
      • Unpacking Global Empire from an Indigenous Perspective with Tyson Yunkaporta & Helena Norberg-Hodge
      • More than Just the Vegetables
      • Food Sovereignty in the Global Economy
      • Transition, Tradition, and Trade
      • Not-for-Profit Businesses
      • Love, Values, and Wellbeing Economies
      • Growing a Farmers Market from the Ground Up
      • Beautiful Places: A Conversation with Wendell Berry
      • Creating the Framework for a New Economy
      • From GDP to GNH
      • Rebuilding Healthy Communities: The Growing Ecovillage Movement
      • Seeds of Resilience, Seeds of Sovereignty
      • Why Local Ownership Matters
      • Local Alternatives to Globalized Development: A View from India
      • How to Feed the World? A Political Agroecological Approach
      • Helena Norberg-Hodge on how corporate ‘free trade’ deals threaten local communities and economies worldwide
  • Our Work in Ladakh
    • Past Work in Ladakh
      • Experiences in Ladakh 2018
      • Experiences in Ladakh 2017
    • Ancient Futures (book & film)
    • Local Futures’ History in Ladakh
      • Women’s Alliance of Ladakh
  • The Economics of Happiness
    • Economics of Happiness Conferences
    • The Film
    • DIY Economics of Happiness Workshop

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