In 2025, look to the Himalayas

A recent festival in Delhi, showcasing the cultures and conservation activities of a 100-plus Himalayan communities, could kickstart more conversations and collaborations for the region

A large Ladakhi house typically has two kitchens. Yarkhang, the summer kitchen, is a basic functional unit located on a higher floor, while the winter kitchen, chansa, is marked by its lateral sprawl, brass and copper cookware, and a thap (hearth) around which family, guests and visitors gather. It is the fluid potential of the kitchen — transcending its role as a mere space for cooking, into a central aspect of Ladakhi culture “that brings together traditions and ceremonies, mirroring the seasonal rhythms of the land” — that resonates with multidisciplinary artist Tsering Motup Siddho. And the fact that this culture is changing rapidly.

At the recent inaugural edition of ‘Journeying Across the Himalayas’, a festival presented by motorcycle manufacturing company Royal Enfield, and dedicated to the cultures of 50-plus Himalayan communities (the larger social mission covers 100 communities) Siddho explored the chansa’s transformation because of migration, lifestyle and other factors, in his installation The Indus that Flows from my Kitchen: through paintings, photographs, and a video recording of the metalworkers of Chilling, a village in Ladakh, who make utensils.

“The ‘other’ comes into play in how we understand the self,” says the 32-year-old artist. “Ironically, tourists helped us Ladakhis understand our own unique traditions. Just as living away from home opened my eyes to the transformation [for instance, plastic replacing brass] and the need to preserve our cultural heritage.” As people interacted with his installation at the Travancore Palace, they shared similar stories. “A Sikkimese designer told me how he could see the same changes in his place too. This is why sharing stories is important — it makes us think, reflect and find connections.”

Himalayan states and Union Territories — Meghalaya, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Tripura, Assam, Nagaland, Mizoram, Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand — cover about 18% of the country’s area. Its cultures, cuisines, and communities, however, don’t always make it to the mainstream. Now, a new guard of artists, environmentalists, chefs, designers and tastemakers are helping change the narrative. By protecting, promoting and sharing their traditions and landscapes.

As visitors from across the country engaged with some of these cultural, entrepreneurial and conservation efforts at the Delhi festival, it was also a reminder about why we need to pay more attention to these communities and their stories in the new year.

And the stories are plenty.

Morangam Khaling, known professionally as Mo Naga, is an ethnographer and tattoo artist who is pioneering neo-Naga designs. Based in Manipur, he belongs to one of the smallest Naga tribes, Uipo, with a population of less than 2,000. For the past decade he’s been documenting native tattooing practices, and in the last year alone, he travelled over 2,500 km across the Northeast to collect specimens for a tattoo garden he’s planting in Manipur — to preserve the dying species of plants and herbs used in traditional tattooing.