Talk Series Mipham Otsal

Activity: Talk Series on Traditional Solutions for Contemporary Problem Date: July 9, 2018 Location: LEDeG Office Meeting Hall, Karzoo Participants: 21

Speaker: Mipham Otsal, President, Ladakh Theatre Organisation

1. Objective: To highlights the problems affecting the Ladakhi society, and finding traditional methods to overcome problems caused by modern development
2. Summary Agenda:

Time Activity PiC Remarks 5:00 PM Welcome Speech Tenzin Motup 5:15 PM Speech by the guest Mipham Otsal 5:50 PM Question & Answer Session 6:20 PM Vote of thanks Tenzin Motup

1. Summary of Results:
    Ladakh going through a major transformation phase. Need to keep intact traditional building methods like rammed earth and promote walking
    Need to learn values from others. There was a time when people would come to Ladakh to conduct research and also to adopt traditional lifestyle
    People of my generation are sad to see the current development work. However, there must be changes but we need to ask what type of change we want and how the change should happen
    We did not take care of the heritage passed on to us by our ancestors. They were smart and intelligent and it is evident in the manner in which they built the Alchi monastery
    If we compare the buildings in USA and Leh in the 14th century, we were much ahead of them, even though there were hardly any facilities at that time, not even tools
    The people from current generation take pride in their education but the fact is that they are creating problems for the society. We are clinging on to things which were created by our ancestors but we have hardly created anything new. We could not even preserve things created by our ancestors
    I staged plays, notably Ladakh Stas Te Dul (Ladakh, beware! Watch where are you heading to?) highlighting the changes in Leh due to tourism
    We take pride in our culture, tradition and language. If we lose it then we lose everything
    The changes should be about our culture. It is needed.

 We are spending crores on imitation. If something new is created then nobody even bothers. It is a matter of concern
 Ladakhis are rich in terms of money, infrastructure and tourism. The irony is that people who are dependent on tourists and sell culture and tradition to them do not even bothered in the preservation of their own culture.
 People should have a taste of development because unless we have tasted everything we won’t be able to fix the problems
 Finding solutions is complicated but we are trying to regain things which we have lost. The younger generation is doing well and they want to do something for the society.
 The foreigners have helped the Ladakhis in preservation of their culture. Foreigners have better knowledge about our culture and the region than the locals. They must share their knowledge with us in order to help us in preserving our culture