Nomadic culture is not a new concept at all . It is entertained and is continued from decades . The living example of the nomadic culture is the changpas of ladakh. The Changpas are Buddhists, and followers of the Dalai Lama. Besides goats, they also keep sheep and yaks, and still follow the old barter system . The Changpas live in tents known as rebos. To make a rebo, yak wool is spun into yarn by the families, then woven and stitched together. They also follow a culture that when the elder son of the family gets married they give the big rebo to the sun and live in a small rebo with the rest of the family and unmarried children’s.
The changpa women main concern is to weave the make the make their younger girls know how to weave since a very young age . They also milk their sheep’s in the evening .
Everthing in the world is changing it is advancing becoming modern and growing its roots and hence is the Changpa’s lifestyle they have started accommodating materials which weren’t always used to change with times. For example, some tents are now made as semi-permanent settlements from stone and mud. Canvas tents and discarded parachutes too have been used for makings tents. Most families now use gas cylinders for cooking and cars for transportation but before they used to load all their stuff on the yalks and then move from place to place but now they use tempo and truck to load all their stuff and reach places in less time than before .
Champa people have also started to migrate out many families have settled in leh or other places and are doing labour work for their family survival because they think it’s good and the place have better living conditions than before . Some have also shifted for their children’s study and future . Hence also the people now believe that their children’s should study and hence there is now a boarding school opened for the children’s where they live and study the main motive to establish the school was to educate the children’s so that they can earn more in the future for their families and few which are lucky enough would get a government job which would give them a good future for their family .
I love to travel . To see new places . To experience new things . To meet new people . I want to travel but am not sure to become a nomadic . I like the nomadic culture but also have some questions lined up for the same . The moment I would get my answers to the questions I think I would be clear about to become a nomadic or not . But for now if someone would give me a choice to become a nomad I would say it a no .
Varnika 