Norberg-Hodge - Ancient Futures

Praise for Ancient Futures

For decades Helena Norberg-Hodge has been a thinker ahead of her time. Ancient Futures is a profoundly important book that can help us to redefine the whole notion of progress.

Doug Tompkins, founder of Esprit and

the Foundation for Deep Ecology

A sensitive, thought-provoking account.

NewYork Review of Books

A classic when it appeared 25 years ago and even more so today... a story that offers authentic hope that we can create a humane, joyful, and life-centered future.

David W. Orr, author of Ecological Literacy:

Educating our Children for a Sustainable World

This passionate book is a gift to us all an experience-based manifesto for change.

Alice Waters, founder of Chez Panisse

Ancient Futures has proven to be a wonderful guide and companion providing a positive vision of an economy that respects traditional values and brings well-being to people. I recommend the book wholeheartedly to business leaders, policy makers, academics and those who are concerned with the future of our planet.

Satish Kumar, founder of Schumacher College

When I first read Ancient Futures in 1992, it changed my life, and it has colored my thinking in all the years since.

Richard Heinberg, author of The End of Growth

Ancient Futures is one of the most important books of our time. Indeed in these pages one encounters a living example of a future that could save us all.

Susan Griffin, author of Woman and Nature

and A Chorus of Stones

We can wish we had changed course since Ancient Futures was first published, but now is the time to turn regret into strong determination to be change-makers, each one of us, in our spheres of influence.

Vicki Robin, co-author of Your Money or Your Life

Ancient Futures seems all the more relevant today because of the widespread contemporary efforts to build up local economies, to reweave the social fabric of relationships (so necessary to health and well-being), and to cultivate ecological wisdom in living on this Earth. This book is a gem.

Charlene Spretnak, author of The Resurgence of the Real

Ancient Futures is a classic. An inspiring story of a grounded way of living. Today, this message is more important than ever.

Mary Evelyn Tucker, Forum on Religion and Ecology,

Yale University

What the noble and intrepid Helena Norberg-Hodge beheld in Ladakh becomes a lesson for all the world. Lucid and poignant, Ancient Futures ranks with Mutual Aid as a classic of human ecology and unyielding hope.

Stephanie Mills, author of In Service of the Wild

Helena Norberg-Hodges telling of the story of Ladakh carries insights that will be increasingly vital for us all.

Wes Jackson, founder of the Land Institute

This new edition [of Ancient Futures ] reminds us of the fragility with which we all coexist on this planet, and helps us to see that industrialization exacts a price.

Lester R. Brown, author of The Great Transition

Ancient Futures is much more than a travelogue; it is an ecologue A book that must be heeded.

Kirkpatrick Sale, The Nation

To my lifelong partner John,

and to my soulmates Teddy, Doug, and Sigmund.

Local Futures works to renew ecological, social and spiritual wellbeing by helping to show the way towards a genuinely sustainable futureone of interconnected, localized economies. Our flagship Economics of Happiness program provides a range of educational and practical tools for communities and concerned citizens, and links a broad array of initiatives, alternative institutes and networks worldwide.

Copyright 2016, 2009, 1991 by Helena Norberg-Hodge

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Published by Local Futures

USA, UK, Australia, Mexico

www.localfutures.org

Cover design by Kristen Steele, based on Blue Design

Cover photo by Helena Norberg-Hodge

Author photo by John Page

Interior photos by Helena Norberg-Hodge and John Page

Drawings by Thubstan Paldan

Library of Congress Control Number: CIP data available from the publisher upon request

ISBN 978-0-692-53062-7 | ISBN 978-0-692-86424-1 (ebook)

Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This book could not possibly have been written without the help of all my Ladakhi friends. There are far too many for me to mention them all individually. However, I owe a special thanks to Tashi Rabgyas and Gyelong Thubstan Paldan, who have guided me over the years; to Dolma Tsering and Tsewang Lden; and to Tsewang Rigzin Lagrook for his quiet wisdom and compassion, which embodied for me everything that traditional Ladakh represented.

John Alexander Page, my husband and partner in all things for 38 years, has provided loving support and critical advice from beginning to end, while Hildur Jackson gave me the confidence to believe in the book, and helped put the first draft on paper.

I am particularly grateful to Steven Gorelick for his patience and guidance as editor, and I want to thank Susan Moon and Kristen Steele, who put much care and energy into helping to make my ideas come alive.

The projects in Ladakh owe a great deal to the leadership of my husband, John; the administration and multiple skills of Steven Gorelick; and the exceptional talent of Ian Worrall, who ran our appropriate technology projects for more than a decade. Marjana Kos, Victoria Clarke, Anja Lyngbaek, Becky Tarbotton, Richard Hendin, Brian Emerson and Alex Jensen also deserve acknowledgment for all they contributed to making this work possible.

Finally, I want to give special thanks to the people whose generous help and advice over the years have been invaluable. Marion Weber, Ann Roberts, Virginia Mudd, Bonnie Mitsui, Carol Black and Neal Marlens, Yvon and Malinda Chouinard, Mimi and Peter Buckley, Doug Tompkins, Teddy and Zac Goldsmith, Paula Pace, and Barbara Kent have done much toward allowing the work of Local Futures and the Ladakh Project to take hold and flourish.

NOTE: I have changed most of the personal names in the book, in order to protect privacy.

FOREWORD

by H. H. The Dalai Lama

Helena Norberg-Hodge has long been a friend of Ladakh and its people. In this book she expresses her deep appreciation for the traditional Ladakhi way of life, as well as some concern for its future.

Like Tibet and the rest of the Himalayan region, Ladakh lived a self-contained existence, largely undisturbed for centuries. Despite the rigorous climate and the harsh environment, the people are by and large happy and contented. This is no doubt due partly to the frugality that comes of self-reliance and partly to the predominantly Buddhist culture. The author is right to highlight the humane values of Ladakhi society, a deep-rooted respect for each others fundamental human needs and an acceptance of the natural limitations of the environment. This kind of responsible attitude is something we can all admire and learn from.

The abrupt changes that have taken place in Ladakh in recent decades are a reflection of a global trend. As our world grows smaller, previously isolated peoples are inevitably being brought into the greater human family. Naturally, adjustment takes time, in the course of which there is bound to be change.