Leh a land of high passes happened to be another
destination of my eternal journey. For me as a painter and a keen observer of
culture, Leh was a curious specimen to be dissected. We hopped from one place to
another scintillated by enormous hills, the chilly climate with little oxygen
in it. We were overwhelmed! A week long vacation concluded with a bag full of
laundry and splendid memories for a lifetime. Despite an ecstatic experience something
sulked within. The brooding was about
the invisible indigenous life. One could barely witness the local culture. Was
it that I failed to notice it or it was totally missing?
We saw men and women, infants and children
but fewer old lads. The population comprised of the some Ladakhi's who hail the
valleys since the earliest known habitation of the site. A large flock of
tourists, Indians as well as foreign nationals form a part of the floating
population. People from the neighboring villages participate in the local trade
and tourism, which could barely be segregated. A distinct population of men
coming here to reap the fruits of the bustling tourism was annoyingly noticed.
This transient population comes mainly from the northern states and Maharashtra.
The annoyance was not due to their interests in the lucrative trade but the
impact they shed on the regional culture and traditions. Though the impact is
an obvious one, my concern is whether the culture evolves to reformulate itself
or it succumbs to the invasions of high urbanism. I grappled with the question
of whether local community is left with any indigenous cultural markers, be it
clothing, food habits, language and the local crafts and artistry.
The cues were found in fragments.
Apparently the Ladakhi populace finds employment in the military services and
allied trades supporting the armed forces with domestic supplies. Rest of the
youth engages in tourism. Some drive tourist vehicles and some service the
hotelward. Agriculture is limited to summer season with few mountainous
vegetables and fruits and wheat which is mostly cultivated on the slopes by
step farming. Winter and summer are the only seasons witnessed. This phenomenon
influences their framing and trade patterns. As a result most goods flow in
from Srinagar and other regions which are facilitated by the military during
the winter when most land is snow clad.
Given the hostile climate, some cultures continue
to exhibit its inherent traits. Here in Leh, even local food was limited only
to strange tasting momos and thukpa which was nothing but vegetable
clear soup with a lot of vegetables still in it. We had learnt of the buttered tea popular in the monasteries.
But we seldom came across a shop serving it. Not even near the monasteries. We
barely came across something that can be termed Ladakhi cuisine. All they
served in the restaurants was either Punjabi, Italian or Chinese dishes. To
further amusement the local crafts were found to be imported than being locally
crafted (sold at almost half the price in New Delhi's Dilli-Haat). Except for
few leather objects, the so called yak wool shawls and the modern day craft of
hand embroidered T-Shirts with fancy Typos and Images, regional artistry was
hardly noticed. It doesn’t stop here. A lot of construction work is vigorously
encouraged by the government and the locals, but the carpenters, masons, smiths
all hail from Bihar, Bengal, Haryana and Maharashtra. The locals are hired only
to make mud bricks. There is no middle class. Only rich and poor exist.
The monasteries too, wore an attire of
being tourist spots than the original sanctity. An intense artificial
appearance adorned the few monasteries we happened to visit viz. Thiksey, Hemis
and Shey. Contributing to this is the newly built Shanti Stupa, which is nothing but mockery of the ancient stupa architecture. The superimposed motifs depicting Lord Buddha's life the Jataka tales are hideously rendered and painted shabbily. However saying so doesn’t take away the grandeur and organic nature of the
medieval architecture. I might be little cynical about the issues discussed.
However true might be my observations or not, these diverse situations appear
to formulate culture afresh in the land of high passes; induced with little
indigenous features and more of the adopted modern Indo-European material
culture. Adventure is now to ride fancy bikes, ride bicycles in the rugged terrain,
trekking, rafting in the gushing lathery, ice cold waters, that too at high
altitudes, but for whom? Whose Culture? or a Mock Culture?
The article is a response after my recent visit to Leh in late September 2014.
