Mindful Travel and Tourist Education Program
Local Futures’ Mindful Travel and Tourist Education Program seeks to address the knowledge gap between tourist and Ladakhis and foster greater understanding about the root causes of cultural breakdown. The aim of the program is:
- Introduce tourists to Ladakh’s past and present;
- Sensitize tourists to the impact of their stay in Ladakh and give them guidelines for culturally, economically and ecologically responsible behavior;
- Encourage tourists to make the links between changes in Ladakh and parallel issues in their home countries.
Resources for Visitors to Ladakh
We’ve produced a number of materials providing guidance to first-time visitors with the aim to minimize the negative effects of tourism, and to maintain the respect that Ladakhis have for their culture and way of life. All materials are free downloadable.
Mindful Travel in Ladakh Video
Watch the short video below to learn more about the impact of tourism and development. Although this video was produced in 2014 and some of the content may be out of date, the main message remains as relevant as ever.
Daily Film Screenings in Leh
From mid-June through early September Local Futures organizes screenings of two documentary films, Ancient Futures: Learning from Ladakh and The Economics of Happiness in Leh. The films are followed by wide-ranging discussions facilitated by Local Futures staff and volunteers. We also offer private workshops and film screenings for tourist groups by arrangement. To request a workshop or film screening for a tourist group, contact [email protected].
Negative Impacts of Developments in Ladakh
After centuries of relative isolation Ladakh was suddenly thrown open to “development” and tourism in the mid-1970s. This development brought many changes to the previously peaceful, prosperous and largely self-reliant culture of Ladakh. Junk food, plastic consumer goods, pollution, and toxics including DDT and asbestos came to the region as part of this process.
Equally, Western-style education, television and advertising – glamorizing an urban consumer life-style – have had a dramatic psychological effects, giving the impression that life in the West is one of limitless wealth and leisure and, in turn, that rural life and traditional culture are primitive and inferior. The influx of tourists has added to the impression that life in the West is infinitely better than in Ladakh.
Tourists will often spend the same amount in a day that a whole family in a Ladakhi village might spend in a year. As a consequence, Ladakhis, particularly the young people, feel that their lifestyle seems poor and backward. Tourists, in turn, often unwittingly reinforce these feelings and insecurities. Having no way of knowing the degree to which Ladakhis have traditionally been self-reliant, they are often horrified to hear of daily wages as low as five dollars, or of an absence of electricity. Generally, neither tourists nor Ladakhis reflect on the fact that money plays a completely different role in the West, where it’s needed for basic survival.
These misunderstandings are born of a lack of complete information and real communication between tourists and Ladakhis. We have found that greater knowledge about what is happening around the world, not isolationism, is the surest way for Ladakhis to take control over their own future.
Recognizing that tourism is a powerful agent of change, we make great efforts to reach out to visitors to invite them to participate in solutions at every level: from cultural awareness, to ecologically sensitive behavior, to supporting alternatives both in Ladakh and in their own home communities.
Related articles
The following blogs provide information about the negative impacts of development in Ladakh, as well as our work to counter them:
Further Resources
Ancient Futures:
Learning from Ladakh
Helena Norberg-Hodge’s moving portrait of tradition and change in Ladakh.
40 Years of Work
in Ladakh
Promoting cultural affirmation and ecological wisdom in Ladakh since 1978.
Our Projects
in Ladakh
Find out more about our Mindful Futures workshops, Help with the Harvest and other projects.