Abstract
Among the Ladakhi in Western Tibet, farming, i.e., the cultivation of wheat and barley, and the breeding of yak, zomo (yak-cow hybrid), cattle, sheep and goat, has been their subsistence. The farming pattern slightly differs among villages depending on the altitude of the location. Cold and dried semi-desert environment, also, has ecologically restrained each family from having more cultivated fields and more number of domestic animals in terms of the construction of an irrigation canal system and the collecting of grass for winter. Since mid-1970s, when this area was opened to tourists, local development has begun and people’s traditional life has been facing drastic changes, especially within Leh precincts. This presentation is to show several issues on the life of farming and the development in Ladakh, commenting NGO activities.
