"Jullay! Jullay!"
"Jullay! Jullay!"
On the small patch of vegetable garden of a deep valley, at Gompa in Tibet, in the mountain covered with snowcap, along Indus River where muddy water flows, in the market alley where women in the traditional clothes and donkeys stroll about, and from the girls drying their hair in the sunlight, I hear Ladakhi greeting, Jullay! Jullay!" wherever I go. "Jullay!" means "Hi! Welcome! Thank you!." It is said that Ladakhi people begin a day with smile and end with smile.
- From my diary written in Ladakh in 2007
Ladakh, which belongs to one of the most back lands in the world, is a region in the state of Jammu and Kashmir in Northern India. It is India's highest plateau with much of it being over 3,000m, sandwiched between the Kuen Lun Mountains range in the north and the main Great Himalayas to the south. It is called "Little Tibet" as it has been strongly influenced by Tibetan culture for long period, called "Moonland" as it is a very unique wasteland, and called an ideal land "Shangri-la," which means 'the jewel of my heart,' as it is a peaceful village where the innocent people live. The name of 'Ladakh' means 'the land filled with mountain passes' in Tibetan. Ladakh has a population of about 130,000 which is a blend of many different races, predominantly the Tibetans and Kashmiri. The population of Leh, the capital in Ladakh, is about 15,000. Because of a high altitude the summer weather is so hot that you can be burnt in the sun, while in winter the temperature may dip
to -40F. Summers are short, on the other hand winters last for eight months. So Ladakh experience the first snowfall in the middle of September and all the land routes remain cut off for several months. The empty valleys of the wasteland are caught up by a howling whirlwind, and the Indus river carries the dust blown off by wind. It seldom rains and the main source of water is the winter snowfall on the mountains. The land is too barren to farm , so Ladakhis measure the area of the land with the time it takes them to cultivate the land. That is, they express the size of the arable land as 'a day, two days, three days.' All the plants and trees in Ladakh are planted by the Ladakhi people. The plants grow just for four months in summer.
There are the two ways to enter Ladakh. One way is to use an airplane(Indian Airlines and Jet Airways) in Dehli, the capital of India, the other is to cross the Himalian passes by using buses and jeeps. The two land routes to Ladakh in use are from Srinagar and Manali. Travelers can adapt themselves to the altitude in Manala(6,600ft) and then cross Tang La pass(20,000ft). It is convenient and takes less time to use airplane, but you can easily come down with altitude sickness because of thin air when you suddenly get off the plane in the region of 13,000ft. On the other hand, it is hard and takes more time to use the land routes but you can adjust yourself to the altitude step by step and drive away altitude sickness, futhermore appreciate the great Himalayas and beautiful stars on your way to the destination.
The Himalayas have glaciers, jungles, deserts, and the valley of flowers. Ladakh is a desert region. Ladakhi people pray God that He melts the icecaps and drops water, instead of praying for rain. Despite a sterile and rough climate, they have led the simple and kind life, achieving self-sufficiency for a thousand years. Dalai Lama, the religious leader of Tibet and Ladakh, said that "the only religion I believe in is kindness." Ladakhis are the very people who practice this religion of kindness.
The inhabitants of 'Little Tibet," who have turned the wasteland like the elephant's skin into the oasis like a bright green gem. The way that they express time is also peculiar like this: 'after the sun sets,' 'when the sun is suspended on the mountain top,' 'at the singing time of the birds before the sun rises.' Helena Norberg-Hodge, a Swedish linguist, writes in <Ancient Futures: Learning from Ladakh> as following:
"The most important thing for Ladakhi people is to build community without avarice and to coexist with nature. They brew the beverage from food left out after a meal, feed the animals wash water, use the animal excrement as compost, and help others after finishing their own work."
Tzering Dolma, a country girl asks the author,
"You said that other people are not happy like us?"
Ladakh lacks a lot of things. It is short of natural resources, oxygen, and water. Nevertheless, they have turned the shortage into abundance by practicing a simple and plain life in insufficiency. So they are poor but their minds are not poor. There is a famous saying in Ladakh: "The tiger's stripe is outside, while man's stripe is inside." It means that one's inside or personality is more important than one's appearance.
However, Ladakh called a primitive village which is the most unique and special highland and not polluted by civilization is swept away by the wave of change. Many roads have been built for military affairs. The Indian government has opened this region to foreign travelers since 1970s. As a result, cars are occupying the roads instead of donkeys, the only former means of transportation. Besides, the gap between the rich and poor came into being. The worst abuse in Ladakh was that "you are a quick-tempered person." But the civil benefits such as American violent movies, televisions and computers have changed their way of life and viewpoint. You can see that even country people carry mobile phones with them. The youth begin to doubt their traditional way of life and consider themselves inferior, by comparing themselves with foreigners. In spite of such changes, it is believed that many European poets, painters, and artists make a long stay there. The reason is that the region still keeps the pureness the modern civilization has lost.
