I visited Ladakh last year. Ladakh was opened up to tourism in the mid 1970s. As a child I remember visiting the village hall to see a slide show of a local mountaineer/traveller type who had visited, so the name of the country always stayed in my memory.
Because of the clear and recent change in policy Ladakh has been an interesting ‘test case’ of the effects of globalisation. Helena Norbert Hodge was a linguist studying Ladakhi folk songs in 1976 and she noted the effects of Westernisation on a culture that was largely harmonious both socially and ecologically. Her book Ancient Futures was an epiphany for me, it bought together in a logical framework so many things that I’ve observed on my travels and living in other countries (mainly Venezuela).
It seems that Bhutan is a generation behind Ladakh. Does this year’s move to democracy mean the begining of the end of the last Shangri La? Check out this video from (rather interesting) Current TV by Christof Putzel:
Bhutan is different though. It is an autonomous state that is already famous for promoting Gross National Happiness before Gross Nation Product.
Also check out this podcast on Happiness (in Bhutan) By Michael Hawley of MIT. I remember listening it one night driving across the country to Norwich its from from IT Conversations.
http://itc.conversationsnetwork.org/shows/detail289.html
