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A window to Ladakh

Anuja Dasgupta

Reflections on Water in Ladakh

by Anuja Dasgupta

 

As the sun rises, the seven stacked bowls are turned. A small amount of water is poured into each bowl and lined up on the shrine from left to right, leaving no inauspicious empty bowl. The size of one barley grain is the gap left between two bowls. Again, from left to right, each bowl is filled with water almost to the top, leaving another barley unit of space from the rim.

 

Yonchap, or water offering in the morning sets the clock for the day. As a valuable, available, and accessible resource which causes no pain when shared, water symbolizes seven offerings to the Buddha. Yonchap and chanting go hand-in-hand to accumulate merit, which is then dedicated to free all sentient beings from thirst and other forms of suffering.

 

The high-altitude Himalayan desert of Ladakh is home to 2000+ glaciers1. Waterways cut through the barrenness like veins of the valleys. Access to water is generally easy, but remarkably revered. Water is frozen for half a year, and when the freeze enters homes, water for yonchap is replaced with grains, dried fruits and nuts, and packaged goods. Once the glacial melt reaches the villages, the agricultural clock sets off for the only harvest of the year which is done within the next six months. As spring announces its arrival, farmers prepare to honour the omnipresent spirits of water and earth. Lhu, the water spirits below the ground, can be angered by making one wrong move towards polluting the water or disturbing the fish. As with lhu, spirits residing above the ground called lha can be provoked even by the breaking of stones. Upsetting the lha and lhu can lead to great adversities, but they are also the guardians of the land giving timely and adequate snowfall and rainfall along with keeping the soil fertile for plentiful yeild. Offerings are made at different hours of the agricultural clock as well as while altering the land in any other way to protect the community.

 

The spiritual geography of Ladakh informs many spheres of life. Like in other rural parts of India, governance comes upon the shoulders of a village head, whose authority lies separate from the legal municipality. The village head called goba is often accompanied by an appointed or elected chhurpon who manages the overall water distribution and irrigation system in the village. As the flow of water in a season from one household to another is decided, smaller communities organise their offerings together before sowing on their farmlands. At the end of the agricultural season after reaping the harvest, each household then honours the earth and water spirits through the ritual of skangsol.

 

Acts of propitiation are not limited to the rural fabric of Ladakh. Even with the ongoing modern infrastructural establishments across the region, new structures are not built without concern for the lha-lhu. A rock is home to a lha; a spring to a lhu. Destroying their home unleashes their wrath. So monks and nuns are called to bless the land and placate the spirits to recompense for the changes made in the realms of the spirits.

 

While water is treasured due to its limited availability for consumption, its life-giving nature can turn destructive in the blink of an eye. On one hand, glacial melt is eagerly anticipated, and on the other, glacial lake outbursts and floods are feared, which have become more common since the devastating cloudburst of 2010. At the same time, the dread of drought is far and near. Shrinking icecaps, flash floods and dwindling water bodies are all symptoms of the single force of climate crisis, which is propelled by rapid urban development. The thread that silently runs through these varied worsening conditions is the belief in the water spirits being provoked. Ill health of a water body signals ill health of the spirit. It is thus the collective responsibility of Ladakhis to please and appease the spirits for collective well-being. After all, chhu med na yul med (if there is no water, there is no village).

 

As with mountain development across the globe, paving the future of Ladakh is like walking on thin ice. Retreating glaciers and deteriorating pasturelands are the cost of catering to the increasing tourist footfall which outnumbers the locals yet uplifts the local lifestyle. What is fuel for a thriving economy is penalty for harmonious living. Governance continues to change colours as pivotal measures are taken from centralised offices away from the village under consideration, and the appointment of goba and churpon become only customary with no real decision-making powers. A cairn built at the confluence of two streams as a silent symbol of water distribution in the village is knocked over to build a road which will connect the village to the highway. The umbilical attachment of human to nature which defined the cadence of life in Ladakh is being pulled apart. Are the lha-lhu still around?


Before the sun sets, the seven water bowls on the shrine are emptied from right to left and cleaned with a cloth. The water goes to the plants or the kitchen. Each bowl is turned upside down, leaving no inauspicious empty bowl facing up.







 

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