Snippets – in Padum

20. + 21. September 2024

 

 

I am collecting bits and pieces in the hope of getting a coherent picture of Zanskar in all its developments. I am still often unsure and sometimes confused as to which information should be categorised and how. The picture above fits in perfectly with this – if you undergo this treatment, are you guaranteed sex and chronic illnesses or are you protected from them?

 

I’ve known Zanskar since 1996 at the latest, when I was there for the first time. And since I did the Kamerakidz project there, I’ve been studying it more intensively. So I assume that many readers will also be able to relate to it. But maybe there are also people reading here who don’t know anything about it? Out of laziness, I often make do with Wikipedia entries – but the German one about Zanskar is incredibly bad. And I’m amused that I appear in it. In english it is much better. Here is the link.But I do anyhow a short summary:

 

Zanskar is a political unit (Tehsil) in the south of the district of Kargil, which together with the district of Ladakh forms the Union Territory of Ladakh (similar to a federal state, but with special rights etc.). The only access for many years started in muslim Kargil, whereby the predominantly Buddhist Zanskar was added to it. They have never felt comfortable with this. The Zanskaris were somewhat cut off from the rest of the world due to a 6-7 month road closure caused by heavy snowfall – but were also able to preserve much of their culture as a result. Around 20,000 people live here at an altitude of 3,500 metres and above.

 

 

They would like to have their own district, but so far they have not been successful. Together with Ladakh, Zanskar has been open to travellers since 1974, but not many have ever made it here – too remote, difficult and uncomfortable. Those who did come were sometimes involved in schools or took photographs or…. In any case, I know a few who keep coming back. Life has changed quite a bit in the last few decades due to the import of goods, money-earning jobs, education and machines replacing manual field and harvest work. But it seems to me that in the last 5 years or so, the changes have been really rapid and perhaps even too rapid.

 

When I started the Kamerakidz project in 2011, nobody had mobile phones and there was only a cyber cafe with poor connections. Things weren’t much different in 2017 either. Today, Zanskar is very well connected and everyone can access the internet almost everywhere. This means that people are connected to the world in a completely different way – especially young people. Love stories are actually already being initiated via social media.

 

 

The situation in state schools was very bad, with an uncommitted shortage of teachers. Private schools made up for this somewhat – or you sent your children to boarding schools outside, which meant they were pretty much cut off from Zanskar life. The holidays were rarely enough for a visit. I can see from the Kamerakidz how many of them left Zanskar for further education after their 10-12 years of school – and now stay there or come back well educated. I met one who is not an ex-Kamerakidz when I curiously walked into a building. Tashi was sitting in his office and was willing to chat with me.

 

He is from Rantakcha and attended various schools in Zanskar and then joined a TCV school in Dharamshala in class 7. He then studied civil engineering and got a job here in Padum. He met his wife, who is a gynaecologist, at school and after 8 years of dating they got married. He designs buildings on the computer and then sees to it that they are built.

 

 

He is a big fan of the Ladakhi activist Sonam Wangchuk, endeavours to promote a Buddhist way of life and outlook and is very concerned about the future of the world due to climate change and autocratic governments. It was a pleasure to chat to someone with so much world interest and knowledge.

 

He also told me a little more about the changes in Zanskar. You keep coming back to these roads. Although people had known about it for a long time and longed for it, it obviously came as a surprise and caught people unawares. In other words, there doesn’t seem to be a committee or anything like that which is thinking about how to reorganise Zanskar. Although there were already differences between rich and poor ten years ago (in addition to the caste system), the differences were not as enormous as they are today. Some people make really good money with their jobs (and corruption). Others don’t. I’ve also heard from other people that the community is falling apart because more and more selfishness is coming to light and there is a lot of envy and resentment. But that’s really just a little bit where I have to look more closely.

 

In any case, people obviously have money (or the government gives some) and this is invested in building activity. I marvelled at the many building sites and took plenty of photos:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Incidentally, the workers are not Zanskaris but Nepalis, Biharis etc. They earn more money here than at home and live in corrugated iron huts and the like.

 

 

This road to Kargil was built by a private company, which also has the contract to clear the pass of snow for 5 years. And so Zanskar was actually only inaccessible for 2 weeks in winter. Despite the fact that you can drive there so quickly, people prefer to take the road to Nimmu and thus directly to Leh – the possibilities are better there and you simply feel more connected to it.

 

What I always found fascinating about Zanskar was that no household has running water. You drag it from the stream or a hand pump. And washing your whole body is also very rare. This is now set to change a little or has already changed with the Indian initiative Jal Jeevan.

 

 

Jal = water, Jeevan = (quality of) life. There are not always suitable rooms etc. in the house for running water, but it helps enormously if the water source is in the courtyard. And that is exactly what has been done: all houses now have at least this. However, as Tashi said, water is a problem. The glaciers are melting, the winter rainfall is no longer as high as needed and the groundwater is dwindling. Just as I learnt in the Rajasthan desert, people are also consuming much more water due to modern demands for cleanliness/hygiene. And so they are now caught in a dilemma. In other areas such as Ladakh, tourist facilities with toilets and showers are a huge water consumption factor, but not (yet) here. Tashi, for example, also thinks that the Zanskari dry toilet will not be replaced by a water closet because the products are needed as fertiliser for the fields. But what about the future of farming? Who will make the effort and what are the possibilities?

 

 

So far I’ve only seen the fancy tractors on the road, but I’m sure I’ll learn more about how it’s all used. I’m already too late for the field harvest, I’ll have to see if I can discover anything else with the processing.

 

 

The next topic is electricity. Even though Zanskar would actually be well suited for solar panels, there aren’t that many. Maybe because of the wind? Here are a few:

 

 

The focus is more on hydroelectric power plants. There are new ones in Sani and Reru – and I’ve hardly experienced any power cuts so far. Instead, I see a lot of light everywhere at night.

 

And despite all these innovations, there are still the old things – like these people I saw pulling the threads for weaving:

 

 

 

 

 

I think I’m getting out of hand. I actually wanted to pack my whole two days into one blog post, but that’s too much. I’ll store some of it in the next one. Because – apart from sitting around with Tashi and taking photos of construction sites, I did a bit more….. There really is a lot to look at and note down.