Using Tibetan nomads for border claims

A couple of days ago, Press Trust of India reported about China pushing Tibetan nomads towards Ladakh region of India to strengthen territorial claims over disputed border areas. PTI had quoted an Indian Bhartiya Janata Party delegation visiting Ladakh about the phenomenon. Since the PTI report is a very brief, I quote here in full:

China pushing nomads into Ladakh region: BJP
STAFF WRITER 19:19 HRS IST

Leh, Apr 4 (PTI) Accusing China of pushing its nomads and grazers into Ladakh, a BJP delegation which visited the region today demanded that Government open the area to tourism to defeat the "Chinese design of grabbing the land by inches".

"We have come here to ascertain reports about the Chinese incursion and what we have found is shocking...," said party spokesperson Rajeev Pratap Rudy, who was part of the five-member delegation that visited Ladakh and bordering areas of Nyoma and Demchok, 300 kilometres from southeast of this Himalayan town.

This is the first national-level political delegation to visit the far flung areas of the Himalayan town. The team included former Uttrakhand Chief Minister Bhagat Singh Koshiyari and former J and K unit chief Nirmal Singh.

I asked around for more information on this. My Ladakhi friend, Tashi Morup, who is also a local journalist, told me that this phenomenon has been happening for a long time.

Here are some pictures of Tashi Morup and I visiting this part of Indo-Tibetan border.

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Uranium near Pangong Lake (སྤང་གོང་མཚོ༑) in Ladakh

I came across a news article from 2007 titled, "India finds uranium in icy Ladakh." It says that the uranium content (concentration) is the highest ever reported in India: as high as 5.36 percent compared to around 0.1 percent or less found in other sources of the country. If this is true, and if the reserves are significantly large, it is huge news (well, not any more) for India's nuclear program, especially for those who advocate India's nuclear independence and oppose the US-India nuclear deal. I actually travelled to that part of Ladakh, all the way to Spangmik Village of Pangong Lake, with a local freelance reporter, Tashi Morup . Here are some photos from that trip.














The fate of the people living in this corner of the world is uncertain. The farmers, pastoralists as well as nomads in this part of the region are concerned, nay, angry, at government plans to turn the region into a wildlife sanctuary. They are worried that government plans will impinge upon their traditional way of life. A wildlife sanctuary may restrict the number of livestock they can keep, limit their grazing area, ban collection wood, hunting and other such practices.










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Settlement vs. Resettlement

Some people responded to my last blog post with more information that I want to share with readers.

1. There are many kinds of housing projects that are being built for herders and farmers on the Tibetan Plateau. So unless someone cross-checks the numbers on the ground, it is difficult to figure out exactly how many herders have been resettled.

2. A couple of friends (Thanks again!) brought to my attention that the Reuters article discussed in my previous blog post talks about 'settlement' (ding ju) of herders, which is different from 'resettlement' (yi min) of herders. Settlement likely means simply building permanent houses at the winter pastures where villagers live -- which is not in any way as serious as "resettlement" or "ecological migration" where herders are removed to new areas as in the case of the Three Rivers Headwaters Nature Reserve.

4. Speaking of 'ecological migration,' What happens to all the yaks when the nomads are forced to resettle? It seems like many sell the animals as they are suppose to do, while others leave their yaks with relatives for keeps. I don't have any credible or interesting story about the fate of these animals. Please share any information you may have on this issue.

3. Some housing projects are simply replacing traditional mud houses with houses made of bricks. This project is more prevalent in Tibet Autonomous Region, where, in total, 860,000 farmers and herders from 170,000 families have moved into the new houses by the end of 2008. According to this Xinhua article , "another 312,000 farmers and herders from 57,800 families moved from shanty homes into new solid brick houses in Tibet [Autonomous Region] this year under a government-subsidized housing project aimed at improving living conditions."

As much as I think this is a tragedy in terms of losing traditional architecture (its cheaper, locally more suitable, environmentally more sustainable, better insulation for Tibet's cold winter, aesthetically more beautiful, etc, etc.), these brick houses are popular among Tibetans. I have seen this trend among Tibetan Buddhist farmers of Ladakh and in Spiti Valley in India. While many of these farmers tend to prefer houses made of bricks with corrugated tin roof as modern and reject their traditional mud houses as pre-modern, many local leaders are clearly concerned about implication of these changes.


[Traditional Tibetan architecture in the Western Himalayas. Photo: Tashi Tsering]
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