While walking across the high desert Himalaya from Himachal Pradesh into Ladakh we strive to learn from and take part in the ways of living here as much as possible.
The traditional lifestyle here has much to teach, from practical knowledge to a deeper wisdom in how to live in peace and harmony with the land, with one another and with one's self...
The end of our trek brought is into the harvest season with everyone working from tje crack of dawn to well past dusk to get everything ready for the quickly approaching winter. Many families where much appreciative of extra hands in helping with the work and we were much appreciative of the chance to stay with and learn from them and to give back some of the time and energy that so many have given to us...
Shortly after spending 5 days harvesting barley with a family in Hanumal, the last village of Zanskar. We stayed 5 more days in Lingshed village in Ladakh helping with a variety of farm work from cutting grass, carrying loads of peas on our backs, and harvesting the local cumin seeds and fields of barley. Of course with many tea, snack, and hardy meal breaks in between. :)
Ama lai (mama) has the main role of cutting the grass, harvesting the grains. Aba lai (papa) is in charge of the animals. Colleen and I traded off helping the two of them in their tasks the first day, helping aba lai bring the two donkeys across the village to the field below the monestary and loading them up to bring the already cut fodder back to stack on the roof of their home.
We learned some new lessons on the digestive tendencies of donkeys As they farted their way across the village. As we led the second donkey behind Aba Lai we would have to keep our scarves over our mouth and nose as the first donkey continually farted noisily in front of us.
Yippee!
Their bodies were hard at work digesting that days grass as they carried their food for the winter months up and down across the village.
Here every bit of vegetation is a precious resource. First all the vegetation around the house and fields are cut with a scythe, stacked in piles and then carried up to the rooftop. Then after the grain harvest is finished the grains are separated from the stalks and the stalks are added to the roof stock pile. Once this is all done the women of the village spend several days heading out further into the mountains, cutting all vegetation they can find and carrying it all in a giant bundle on their backs back home, each looking a bit like walking trees...
Even plants only a few inches high are cut. The winters are long and each family has many yaks, goats, sheep, and donkeys to sustain all throughout.
The areas not cut by humans are used as summer grazing grounds for the animals. Each village shares the responsibility of being the Shepard as they rotate turns between families that have a person take out the hundred or more sheep and goats of the whole village for the day. In the morning and evening there is a meeting spot at the edge of town where everyone bring and collects their animals, in a chaos of 'bahhing' animals and shouting and running villagers throwing stones, somehow all the animals end up back to their correct place each day.
Each night in Lingshrd we help Ama Lai to round up the sheep and goats and get them into their small night time stone structure. Once their all packed tightly inside ama lai squeezes into a crazy on the corner with her bucket and several minutes later re emerges with a bucket of goats milk! Somehow casually finding the correct animals to milk in the chaos.
Back to the grass...
It's interesting to look at the land use here from an ecological or permaculture perspective. While normally I would be inclined and have learned that it's best to keep the vegetation on the land, and that vegetation on farm field should be returned to the soil as much as possible, I find myself lacking certainty on ways to make the farming here more ecologically sound without large disruption in the culture and way of life. There is just no mulch to spare for mulching...
All vegetation is needed for animal feed. And these animals are an essential part to their survival in this harsh climate.
There are few crops that can grow in the short growing season here, making the extra nutrition from the animals products essential. Dairy is a precious source of fat, protein, and other vitamins and minerals, keeping the local people strong and healthy in this harsh environment.
The sheep provide wool that people turn into clothes over the winter time and the meat from the animals provide sustainance once all other foods become scarce over the winter months.
Large stock piles of grass gathered by the villagers to last throughout the winter fill the rooftops. This grass then cycles into manure that help to fertilize the fields and fuel the fires for cooking and warmth.
The land is in a state of permanent heavy disturbance with little chance of ever reaching past primary successional species yet I would argue that these people are living much more sustainably than those back home that are encouraging land to be set aside for wilderness and forest. The land appears heavily used yet remains in balance with no resources going to waste as everything cycles back into the system.
The people are fully a part of the environment and the local cycle. With even the human manure going back to fertilize the fields. All resources are precious and put to use in their full potential. Population is at a small enough scale for the land to continue to sustain for centuries....
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At home there are many prisitne wilderness areas but most people are living as though they are separate from these natural systems. This land can only be set aside for wilderness because the American economy is dependent on exploiting resources from other, more politically weak countries. Americans can buy their food and an an excess of other consumer goods from supermarkets and shopping malls and then burn large amounts of fossil fuels to drive to national parks to spend their holidays. Americans have their cake and eat it too...
But these visits to the parks and day to day life don't often feel connected to one another. One goes to the wilderness for the weekend and enters nature, then leave nature and goes back to the 'real world' and back to work...
Nature and day to day life don't seem connected.
But what if we were to live a bit more deeply on the land and find a middle way?
Where we lived within our natural surroundings, using the resources around us for sustainance in a capacity that could be continually sustained? Where we lived in a way that we felt ourselves to be apart of this cycle. Where economics meant making the best use of thelimited local resources and enhancing their capacity, rather than creating an illusion of endless growth..
Where human population was subject to the same restraints of the population of all species, kept in check by the carrying capacity of the local environment...
I'm not suggestion that we get rid of the wilderness areas and cut all vegetation. Each situation has to be adapted to the local culture, and ecology. Wilderness is essential, these places are extremely healing and valuable and other species need a place where they can thrive without the threat of human exploitation of their homes.
But it's important to take a look at the true cost of setting aside this land for protection. Is it truly conservation if we set aside this land yet replace it with stealing resources from others elsewhere?
If we are to set aside land for wilderness we should also put limits on ourselves in how much we can consume so there is space for all beings to survive and thrive...
We need to look at our local living spaces and find ways to turn these resources into sustainance. Seeing waste as part of the cycle of precious resources. Turning green and unused spaces into places that provide food... sustaining ourselves locally and then also leaving some untouched space for other beings to thrive without our intervention.
We need to mature and develop in a more responsible way, learning a bit more from those who are living more simply and in harmony with the land. We need to use our minds as tools for enhancing and supporting life rather than for destruction..
We need to re connect to what it means to survive and feel at home in our local environment, to find balance and our place in the ecological system, to understand that conserving one place doesn't mean we have a right to destroy another...
Maybe we would begin to find the right path if we all spent a little time cultivating grains, and vegetables, and getting to know what it takes to become connected to the life emerging from the land around us.
Maybe we should all spend a little time cutting grass and carrying it back home with a gassy ass...
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Thank you to the many Ama and Aba Lai's we've had the chance to work alongside an learn from over the past couple of months. Thank you for your time energy and graceful way of doing it all while remaining fully rooted in each moment.
May this connected way of being and natural wisdom continue here into the future and continue to inspire visitors to become better beings in their own homes.
May all beings find the path to bring themselves and others out of suffering.
May we all live in peace inside and out
:)
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