Zanskar is a Tibetan Buddhist culture that has been continuously inhabited for a very long time and largely left to organise itself. What that produces is a place where religion, farming and family are not separate subjects.
Buddhism as daily practice
Most Zanskari families are Buddhist, following the Gelug or Drukpa schools depending on which monastery their village belongs to. In practice this is less visible in doctrine than in landscape: chortens at the edge of every village, mani walls of carved stones along the paths, prayer flags on ridges and bridges, and a rhythm of small daily observances. Many families have a son in a monastery. Monks come home for the harvest.
The farming year
The growing season is short and the whole valley runs on it. Fields are irrigated by channels that carry meltwater along the contour, sometimes for kilometres, and the water is shared on a schedule that villages have worked out among themselves for generations. Barley is the main crop — for flour, for tsampa, and for chang. Peas, potatoes and some vegetables grow where the valley is low and sheltered enough.
Harvest falls in late August and September, which is one reason we like guiding then: you walk through villages that are entirely occupied, and you are far more likely to be pulled in for tea.
Houses, food and hospitality
Houses are mud brick on stone foundations, with small windows and thick walls, built to hold heat. The kitchen is usually the warmest room and the social centre. If you are invited in, you will be given butter tea (salty, and an acquired taste) or sweet tea, and it is polite to accept at least a little.
Food on our journeys is cooked fresh by our own crew: rice and dal, vegetables, chapati, soup, eggs, and as much tea as anyone can drink. It is simple, it is a lot, and at altitude it is what keeps people walking.
Language
Zanskari is a Tibetic language, closely related to Ladakhi. Hindi is widely spoken and English is common among younger people and anyone working with visitors. Two words carry you a long way:
- Juley (also written jullay) — hello, goodbye, thank you, please. Use it constantly; everybody does.
- Kulé kulé — slowly, slowly. What you say to someone rushing a climb, and what we named ourselves after.
Being a good guest
- Ask before photographing people, and accept a refusal without negotiating. Ask especially with children, and ask their parents.
- Walk clockwise around chortens and mani walls, and keep them on your right.
- Dress covered: shoulders and knees, in villages and monasteries.
- Do not hand out sweets or pens to children. If you want to give something, give it to the school or the village, and ask us how.
- Carry your waste out. Everything you bring in has to leave again, including what burns badly.
More on how we handle this as an organisation: responsible travel.