Leh: Lost in Commercialisation

hi
I know it's been a while that i have nit written about my trips. I have not even written about my Ladakh Trek. I have decided i will write about all my trips as a year ender piece and i promise to be more regular in the coming year.
With regard to my Ladakh trip, the only thing i have penned down about my trips is my experience at Leh and how i felt the culture of Ladakh was lost somewhere in teh commericalisation of the place.

here is my experience

16th August, Fort Road, Leh
11.30 am
After having read Andrew Harvey’s Journeys in Ladakh and Helena Norberg-Hodge’s book Ancient Futures: Learnings from Ladakh my curiosity on the region had increased tremendously. I could not wait to be there and experience the beauty and culture of Ladakh. While I was expecting to see a whole lot of foreign tourists in the place, I was also kicked by the feeling that I could witness a whole lot of tradition and Buddhist culture in Ladakh. But when in Ladakh, a region bound by two of the world's mightiest mountain ranges, the Karakoram in the north and the Great Himalaya in the south for almost ten days, the one thing that I noticed starkly was the influx of tourists and more so the foreign tourists into the region had led the traditional Buddhist Ladakh to modifying its cultures and traditions. The beautiful traditional Palaces and Monastries in and around Leh are camouflaged with numerous construction activities to boost tourism.
The streets of Leh are awash with Coke stands, German bakeries, Pizzerias, numerous Trekking agencies, Internet cafes and antique shops. Surprisingly, what I noticed was that except for the trekking agencies and few antique shops most of the shops are owned by non-Ladakhis. You find more of the Rajasthan and Kashmir artefacts shop than to the Ladakhi antique shops. The glamour struck youth dressed in brands like Adidas and Nike flaunt their mobile phones, motor bikes, SUVs and cars, while crumbling tradition comes face to face with forces of modernity. Leh looked a replica of Goa to me. Things have changed rapidly since the government opened Ladakh for adventure tourism in mid 1970s. There has been a sudden influx of money, 'modernity', and government-led initiatives that sought to 'develop' the area.
Although change is inevitable and no community wishes to preserve itself as a museum of backwardness, it is the rapid pace of change and a lack of understanding of the nature of change, which a society is unable to control, or direct that touches a cord of concern. The development of tourism accelerates this process of change and rapidly pushes traditional societies into the global economy totally ill-equipped.
Abdul Qayoom, proprietor of a trekking agency called Plan Himalayas and a Ladakhi from Nubra Valley says: “Leh has changed a lot in the last five years. With so many foreigners here we have also got modernized. Several guest houses and hotels have come here. Ladakhi youngsters are aping the foreigners and have altered their lifestyles to appear in sync with times.”
As is understood from the locals, lot of changes in Ladakh have also come about due to the Military deployment in the region as it is a highly sensitive region. Earlier unreachable today, Ladakh is connected by routes from Srinagar in the west and Manali in the north of Himachal Pradesh. The airport at Leh which is largely a military airport has three private airlines namely Jet Airways, Indian Airlines and Kingfisher Red erstwhile Simply Deccan flying into Leh every day. The Military deployment in the area has led to the creation of a parallel economy in Ladakh. The airport in a way has also fuelled economic activity, creating more opportunities for Ladakhis
The influx of foreign tourist has engineered the change in Ladakh and fuelled the demand and supply of consumer goods. The tourist potential of Leh has more than doubled since 1974 thereby creating employment opportunities for the locals, according to tourism officials. Nasir Hussain, deputy director of Tourism in Leh says: “Last year we had a total of 51,000 tourists (domestic and foreign) arrivals into Ladakh and this year our data shows that till end August we have already crossed over 60,000 tourist arrivals. We expect that by end of December we would have crossed over 80,000 tourist arrivals into the region.”
To handle the rush, an infrastructure of hotels, restaurants and guest houses has come up in Leh. “When the region was opened for adventure tourism in 1974 there was not a single guest house or hotel in and around Leh. But today, there are 8000 beds all over Leh to cater to tourists,” explains Hussain. The youths of Ladakh are employed during the tourism season as trekking guides. The one good thing that local trekking agencies say is that no outside trekking or adventure tour companies can operate directly in Ladakh. They have to tie up with a local Ladakhi agency.
Qayoom says apart from having trekking agencies from Delhi and Mumbai contact him to organise treks for their clients he also gets a lot of walk in clients on a daily basis during the tourist season for whom he organises trips.
With tourism and adventure tourism being promoted in a big way in Ladakh, the main source of income for the Ladakhis come from running guest houses. The attraction of Leh's dollar-fuelled tourist economy has unleashed a village-to-town migration of farmers, who want to make money during the tourist season between June and September. There are opportunities for being cooks, guides and horsemen. Between June and September, well trained trekking guides (guides who have climbed 6000-7000 meter peaks, peaks can earn anywhere upto Rs 50,000 to Rs 60,000 including tips. A new guide who has just stepped into the trekking arena could earn half that amount. The horsemen, most of whom are Tibetans charge a huge sum. In a good season they could charge about Rs 500 per horse per day and the treks could range from anywhere from 5 days to 15 days. Cooks are another league of people who come at a premium during the trekking season. Some of the trekking guides after the season ends also end up being high altitude porters for the Indian defence in Siachen Glacier.
Abdul Gafoor and Tashi are two such trekking guides who are also deployed in Siachen Glacier for six months from December to June. On an average Gafoor Says he earns about Rs 50,000 incuding tips during the four trekking months and thereafter he gets paid a monthly salary of Rs 13000 to be a high altitude porter.
In the bargain, the Ladakhi model of cooperative farming is disappearing. Further traditional crops are being replaced with high-yielding varieties fit for export.
While, modernisation and globalisation has helped urban Leh to see the future, the interior and remote villages of Ladakh are still facing troubles. They still have to await the benefits of more water, electricity, fresh vegetables and medical facilities. At staggering heights like 10, 000 to 14,000 feet, people still wash their utensils in roadside streams; children still feign pleasure after journeying on mules. People have to come down all the way to city to get medical facilities or they simply wait for the trekkers to pass by and give them some medicines. It is more the trekkers and the adventure-tourists who are spending directly in the villages and thereby profiting the local population.
Tourism development has not been integrated with the overall development of the region and the local people have not been part of this journey from the planning stage.
Now, it is understood that the in order to help the remote villages benefit out of tourism, the State Department of Tourism has come up with schemes wherein they would give 30 per cent subsidy (with a ceiling of upto Rs 30 Lakh) to individuals who are keen on building hotels with minimum capacity of 30 beds. The department has also decided to provide 40 per cent subsidy to villagers who are ready to convert their residences into guest houses. In border villages where infrastructural development is difficult due to the hostile terrain, traditional agriculture still exists. Economically also what one realises is that self sufficiency has been gradually replaced by economic dependence on the outside world. One will have to wait and watch until all these changes accrue benefits to the region as a whole.
eom