STANZIN D. NAMGAIL | THE DIVERSE CULTURE AND THE CHANGE

The dying art of folk music tradition in ladakh.         

Everyone would have struggled a lot searching for a suitable topic. It was same for me when I got to know about CEU and went in a deep thought what my topic should be. But it didn't took long to decide my topic as it was there in front of me all the time the neglected heritage and the changing socio-economic perspective. I had met with many enthusiastic people with full of resources and heard them talking about the problem to facilitate them but they were all lack of opportunity but I     had the opportunity to bring up the problem and study them and can make a change    

 Being in the Himalaya in -26° degree I struggled more with the climate and the facilities (electricity, internet) then struggling for my thesis topic. I reached to the deadline without submitting my application and was still struggling how I can do all the submission. But the things were turning in my favor and I could do the final submission and got selected afterwards.

Reaching CEU my concept of preserving cultural heritage becomes wider .I was aware of one problem and now I could see many and wanted to cope up with all and I think I could deal with everything being in touched to my main topic. After visiting many places during the excursion trip organized by the medival studies I could foresee my future assignment of preserving the cultural heritage of ladakh valley. The trip brought me face to face the similar situation which Hungary might had faced once. Cultural heritage studies not only prepare me theoretically but with the help of practical involvement will bring me more closely solving the riddle of preservation or a master of preservation in a way.

I saw a change in culture every time and I was asked, “how you could say the culture is changing” and I simply answer them that “Only a person who stays far from it for a while can see something has changed and the person who stays in touch with it will see no change as they don’t realize they too are changing unknowingly. So it brought to my topic-preserving cultural heritage in the ladakhi zanskar valley in perspective of its complex socio-economic context. I wanted to do something but involving the local community. The old people of the village keep saying that “things are changing rapidly and it’s in the hand of the youth what changes they want to make or see.

I remember a line from Nordberg Hodge that “throwing off all tradition might lead to a real decline in well-being.