My Friend Yvette loaned me this book. It was publiushed by the Sierra Club in 1991. When I first glanced through the book, I thought wow 1991 was before the explosion of the world wide web how must this "ancient culture" look now? I wasn't sure I would get much out of the book, but it is a wonderful study in sociology. It reminds me a bit of the more recent book called "Three Cups of Tea" which I read last summer. The theme of both books is that western culture and "development" are not necessarily the best way. The book "Three Cups of Tea" has a focus on education of children along western idealogies. Along the way, the author learns from the local people about the benefits to a slower pace of life. This book, Ancient Futures, focus is that we have much to learn from the way things used to be done. There was very little waste by the Ladakh people until they started to "modernize" their facilities. Interdependence was valued, but with the new more wetern ways independence became important. With the culture changes, problems of the west crept in such as depression and isolation.
One of the first things I thought of upon reading this book, was the stories about the Tsunami several years ago that killed so many people. Some of the more indiginous "boat" people in those areas were able to remain safe from the Tsunami as they had a vast culural knowledge of the phenomenon as it was occurring. I guess this was an extreme case of what happens to culture when the relationship to the environment and a respect of nature is lost. It also made me think of all of the "development" according to western standards that are happening in China today. How much of China's ancient ways will be lost in an attempt to modernize?
Closer to home, this book is a reminder to all of us to slow down and appreciate relationships with humans and the earth for what they are--life sustaining.
1 comment:
Hi Beth, Two points that really struck me when reading this book (which I attribute to part of the process which woke me to really THINKING about everything) was that we can't even peek on an "untouched civilization" without affecting it. We can't really observe anything without our action of observing changing that which we observe.
The second point was about the Ladakh's GNP and the relationship of the GNP to a country's wealth. At the time of the first visit of Helena Norberg-Hodge with the Ladakh people she saw a people who were content and productive, spiritual and flourishing...a rich existence in a very harsh environment (harsh by our judgments). Their environment and resources remained the same but it seems all else changed around them. Or at least what has changed was their relationship with the outer world. At the time of the printing of the book they are compared to a nearby country as having a GNP of near 0...among the poorest countries in the world. And indeed they are feeling poor and cold and no longer content.
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