Tradition vs. Tourism - Part 1

OK, I'll let you all in on a little secret that I'm not going to share with many people - The Kinnaur + Spiti Valleys are MAGICAL! Travelling here is like stepping into the pages of a National Geographic and exploring a way of life you'd thought had died out long ago. Why am I keeping it secret? Because I don't want it te be spoiled. Sangla, Nako + Dangkar were SPECTACULAR and the photos just don't do them justice. You'll see though that the people are mostly Tibetan and they're all super-sweet, and dare I say "innocent". They also have alot of pride in their culture + keep their villages MUCH cleaner than we've seen anywhere else in India. It's here that we've gotten our first glimpses of HUGE snow-capped peaks and even headed up into them a bit. The road here is long, winding and VERY precarious and there were numerous times when I could not see the edge of the road with my cheek pressed against the window, only a crumbling rock slope extending FAR below to the river, and left deep half-moons in Darin's leg!

The payoff though is that you end up in places like THIS, fabled Shangri-La's. What a dichotomy that we as tourists walk through these towns and covet the simple, timeless + poetic way of life these people have when they in turn want to be westernized. This is maybe not AS true with the older generation that hold their heads with pride, but TV has certainly swayed the youth and I wonder what will happen as they grow up, become educated and no longer want to farm. They see tourism as the way of the future, but if they foresake the old ways and draw more tourists in, the villages will then lose their charm. Nako is trying to manage this by having few guesthouses set a little apart from the village itself. Dangkar allows people to sleep in the Monestary or in people's homes. If both limit tourism to this extent it may help, but for how long will it last?

I feel so fortunate to have been able to experience this and I yearn for more experiences like it, but I also feel a pang of guilt that I might be contributing to a downfall. You watch these people live + work and they ALWAYS have a smile on their face. They have a strong sense of community and are always willing to help their neighbor. One man we stayed with told us that he just "borrowed" wood from another man in town to build his house and he would only need to repay it whenevr the other man needed wood again. We've been invited in with open arms, given food + tea, a bed, and have been told to merely "pay as you like". I ponder what I can repay that will actually benefit them in the long term...

Here's a "link" to more photos