Do not follow where the path may take you. Go instead where there is no path, leave the known trails behind and make your own path. Traveling is a brutal thing and it forces you to trust strangers & to lose all comfort you have of home, friends and ego. You are constantly off balance and nothing is yours. Travel teaches you how to balance & you will learn quickly how to smell green grass.
Changpa’s of Ladakh.
To watch them in action is eye feast, to spend time with them feels good and to live with them for few days is the great way to learn philosophy of life. They are not much so called rich or civilised people, but being with them and learn to live life in very simple ways is great learning where no university or collage can teach you. I must say money or a extraordinary book knowledge never teaches how to you should live life happily and peaceful. I am really lucky to be stay with them for last few of years, which really helped me to enrich my experience.
The Changpa of Ladakh are high altitude pastoralists, raising mainly yaks and goats. Among the Lasakh Changpa, those who are still nomadic are known as Phalpa, and they take their herds from in the Hanley Valley to the village of Lato. Hanley is home to six isolated settlements, where the sedentary Changpa, the Fangpa reside. Despite their different lifestyles, both these groups intermarry. The Changpa speak Changskhat, which is a dialect of Tibetan, and practice Tibetan Buddhism.
Only a small part of Changtang crosses the border into Ladakh, in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. It is, however, on a historically important route for travellers journeying from Ladakh to Lhasa, and now has many different characteristics due to being part of India. Historically, the Changpa of the Lasakh would migrate with their herds into Tibet, but with Chinese occupation of Tibet, this route has been closed.
As of 2001, the Changpa were classified as a Scheduled Tribe under the Indian government’s reservation program of positive discrimination.
Grazing ground for Pashmina goats in Changthagn region of Himalaya, during winter months, where grass burried under snow.
Grazing ground for Pashmina goats in Changthagn region of Himalaya, during winter months, where grass burried under snow.
Dusk in Changthang, its time to go home
Its hard to find grass in frozen land of Changthang during winter time where temperateure drops to -30 to -40 easily.
It's time to go home, Nomad is leading his floks of Pashmina gats back home after eventful day.
Sonam and Nitrim, Changa girls are having relax time when heard is safe by Changkhi Dogs (Guarding Dogs)
We love our goats,
