The Ladakhi Goncha is a glorious traditional outfit donned by Ladakhi people to stand tall and smiling against the frigid temperatures of this cold desert. Goncha is a piece of cloth that shields one from the cold outside, enough to keep them beating and warm. This is a piece of clothing made out of local Ladakhi wool, adorned with motif details that resonate with the culture of the land of the higher passes.
The unique design of the Goncha also speaks volumes about the people living in Ladakh!
Ladakhi people are very frugal in nature. They belong to a land where frugality is a way of life. And, they own their lifestyle. As described in the book βAncient Futuresβ, the frugality of their life is all about mindfulness and tactful use of resources because everything that is present in the land is taken stock of, enough for the people. Overuse of resources would mean a crumble of society eventually. People live in symbiosis with the outside, the environment. As someone who experienced living in Leh for the good part of 2022, I started to resonate with the understanding the people have of the environment there. It is something we often times miss in the city. Life actually depends on our environment and this was something I actually understand after spending months in Leh. Nope, the covid times were also not enough to teach this lesson, because when life actually depends on the environment, it is not a constraint β it is fun, and something you have to be serious in terms of abiding with.
The Ladakhi Goncha is designed in such a way that it forms a little pocket that is used to store tasty apricots and other quick bites to cure hunger while walking in the insanely expansive barren moonscape of the place. People also use this pouch to keep a cup or any utensil, to maybe sip on their butter tea or have something to eat. The single-use culture was an almost alien concept until consumerism completely seeped into societies. But even now, many locals carry their utensils with them for celebrations and events, carry them back with them. They respect their surroundings to not pollute them, they respect the resources and do not over-use them. Caring is second nature, no questions asked. Not to mention, their care towards our glaciers is also the reason why we can be sure to have water all-round the year here, in the plains.
Right now, things are not going well for Ladakh, politically. Our beloved Sonam Wangchuk, a social innovator, went on a 5-day Climate Strike from 26th January to voice the concerns of the people against the UT governmentβs lack of capacity to provide for the people of Ladakh. With the strike, he has questioned the inability of the government to support the people with jobs, the financial allocation given to the region, and the developments in the place which ought to be in harmony with nature. The Himalayan mountains are mammoth but very fragile. We are sitting in crucial times when we can see what reckless developments can do – like the sagging of our mountains in many parts of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh. After all this, we cannot discount listening to the hushes and the voices of Mother Nature.
The echoes of the broken and hollow promises of the government reverberate deeper against the vast and expansive barren mountains of Ladakh. This is a clear case of the imbalance between the triple bottom line elements β People, Planet and Prosperity, and the Government. Healthy employment, sustainable development, and a happy place go hand in hand. Since the creation of UT Ladakh, it is imperative under the constitutional rights to impose the 6th Schedule which would ensure good employment opportunities for people in the region itself. Mr. Wangchuk observed a fast in the cold outdoors (under negative temperature) asking for the demands and coupling this with a development that goes hand in hand with nature.
For a place that knows how to closely work with nature, for the situation to come to this is but a shame. A lot needs to be learned from Ladakh and the people. Muting their voices today would translate into a bleak tomorrow for all of India, and other countries as well. Instead, we need to learn how they live zero-waste and nature-based lives and bring home concepts of such a lifestyle to truly meet our climate commitments.
