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Ancient Futures: Learning from Ladakh
 
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Ancient Futures: Learning from Ladakh (Paperback)

by Helena Norberg-Hodge (Author), Peter Matthiessen (Introduction), HH The Dalai Lama (Preface)
5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
RRP: £11.99
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  • This item: Ancient Futures: Learning from Ladakh by Helena Norberg-Hodge

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Product details

  • Paperback: 224 pages
  • Publisher: Rider & Co; New edition edition (6 April 2000)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0712606564
  • ISBN-13: 978-0712606561
  • Product Dimensions: 21.4 x 13 x 2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 159,155 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #90 in  Books > Mind, Body & Spirit > Spirituality > Mysticism
    #100 in  Books > History > Countries & Regions > Asia > India

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Product Description

Zac Goldsmith, ecologist - YOU Magazine

"The book that has had the greatest influence on my life is Ancient Futures by Helen Norberg-Hodge"

Product Description

Ladakh, or "Little Tibet", is a beautiful desert land up in the Western Himalayas. It is a place of few resources and an extreme climate. Yet for more than 1000 years, it has been home to a thriving culture. Traditions of frugality and co-operation, coupled with an intimate and location-specific knowledge of the environment, enabled the Ladakhis not only to survive, but to prosper. Everyone had enough to eat; families and communities were strong; the status of women was high. Then came "development". Now in the modern sector one finds pollution and divisiveness, inflation and unemployment, intolerance and greed. Centuries of ecological balance and social harmony are under threat from pressures of Western consumerism. "Ancient Futures" is much more than a book about Ladakh. It raises important questions about the whole notion of progress, and explores the root causes of the malaise of industrial society. At the same time, the story of Ladakh aims to serve as a source of inspiration for our own future. It shows us that another way is possble, and points to some of the first steps towards kinder, gentler patterns of living.

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars How capitalism is preventing us from learning from history, 22 Oct 2009
By Dr. H. A. Jones "Howard Jones" (Wales) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Ancient Futures: Learning from Ladakh, by Helena Norberg-Hodge, Rider, 1992; 2nd edn. 2000, 240 ff.

How capitalism is preventing us from learning from history
By Howard A. Jones

How many times have we read in our history books of societies or civilizations over-reaching themselves to environmental disaster or extinction? We have seen it in the fall of the Roman Empire and, more recently, with the Easter Islanders, creation of the Dust Bowl in America, Soviet Communism, the Peruvian fishing industry . . . and so on. Still, capitalist greed and the quest for ever more power and control drives western businesses to try to `improve' life within `primitive' societies by introducing western technology. But, as the author points out in the Introduction, `the Western development model, far from being "the answer", is culturally, psychologically and environmentally unsustainable.'

Ladakh is one of the latest victims of the onward march of globalization. Ladakh is a formerly isolated Himalayan territory of two districts, one primarily Buddhist, the other mostly Muslim. This book focuses on the Buddhist community and how their lives have been blighted by this attempt at westernization. We might view this attempt more kindly if we believed it was genuinely directed at improving the welfare of local residents, but capitalist philosophy being what it is, it is almost certain that the prime concern was exploitation to increase profits.

The author lived amongst the Ladakhis for many years and saw the society change from one that involved days of arduous work amongst a happy, cooperative and essentially contented people to one involving equally arduous but alien work with `labour-saving technology' within a highly competitive society that has now become plagued with drugs and internecine squabbles. Where once friends and neighbours would help one another to build their homes, and exchange services, food and other commodities, where children respected their elders and the community cared for the weak and elderly, now supplies must be purchased from western conglomerates, formerly recycled resources are discarded so that new commodities can be bought, and within the society it's every man for himself.

This is a sad and salutary tale from which those who would listen would learn much. It is a prime example of what not to do to try to bring indigenous peoples into a western twenty-first century lifestyle. The story is engagingly told by an environmentalist with first-hand knowledge gained from the people themselves by living amongst them. The book is highly recommended.

Dr Howard A. Jones is the author of The Thoughtful Guide to God (2006) and The Tao of Holism (2008), both published by O Books of Winchester, UK.

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