A hike through a culture, not simply hills
Reminded of the challenges facing Highland Scotland, Gavin Anderson has set up an ethical trekking company to help remote areas of Nepal preserve their heritage
Gavin Anderson from Ullapool has spent years developing an understanding of threatened cultures in remote Nepal. Now his new ethical trekking tours hope to provide a sustainable future.
How did you come to be working in Dolpo?
I have worked for 28 years in rural and small business development in Africa, Asia, The Caucuses and Eastern Europe. About eight years ago I started working in various parts of Nepal. I have now visited 15 times.
In 2015 I was asked to assess the trekking tourism opportunities in the far North West of Nepal on behalf of a project funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID). They are working on a series of trails through the high Himalayas and hills of Nepal called The Great Himalayan Trails. That took me to the high valleys of Dolpo. What are the challenges that tourism poses to the Himalaya? Are there pluses as well as minuses?
Dolpo is stunning, scenically, set deep within the High Himalaya and Nepal’s largest national park – Shey Phoksundo. It is a pristine landscape where the endangered snow leopard still wanders. The mountain culture of the ‘Dolpo-pa’ people is fascinating. They are semi nomadic yak herders with a strong and distinct Tibetan culture, architecture and ancient Bon religion which predates Buddhism but fuses it with ancient animist beliefs. This combination of unforgettable mountain landscapes, fragile wildlife and ancient culture makes Dolpo a unique but challenging destination for trekkers.
Dolpo is inaccessible by road and can only be reached by taking two domestic flights from Kathmandu. The last flight is by small 20-seater Twin Otter plane that can only fly early in the morning due to mountain thermals that build gradually during the heat of the day. Despite this, trekking groups are travelling to Dolpo and a small trickle of trekkers arrive to walk the upper and lower Dolpo circuits that have been developed.
The sad thing, personally, is that despite trekking tourism being attracted by the mountain culture of the Dolpo-pa, these communities are benefitting little from this emerging tourism. Visiting groups bring in their own guides, camping equipment and provisions and hire porters and pack animals at the start of the trek and in the lower Hindu Valleys. They therefore buy little and create little employment in the mountain communities. The communities also complain that these groups are damaging fragile high mountain pastures and forests with their pack mules. The Dolpo-pa say that the official trekking fees that are levied by central government in Kathmandu never reach them. Why did you feel such a debt to the people of the area when officialdom appeared to fail them?
The simple answer is the
“Rather than relying on guides and staff from outside the mountain areas, we will train guides from the mountain villages who will come down to meet groups and take them up to their villages”
people and the connection I made with them during evenings of discussion over yak butter tea and in village meetings. I was struck by the similarities of the challenges they are facing to those of my home area in the Highlands of Scotland. The communities are losing their young people due to lack of employment and economic opportunities. This is partly being exacerbated by improvements in education and communications. Even the young that want to stay in Dolpo are finding it increasingly hard to make a living, with the traditional trade of salt and grain from Tibet to the Hindu valleys of Nepal being undermined by the availability of cheaper imported commodities. The reducing and ageing populations of mountain villages pose a huge threat to the survival of these mountain communities and their ancient way of life. It is for this reason that the Dolpo-pa passionately want to become involved in tourism that can provide real employment and income opportunities.
Nevertheless, the project I was involved with decided not to work in Dolpo. It was regarded as too remote, difficult and expensive to work in. There are also only 8,000 people in the mountain communities of Dolpo and it came down to a harsh cost-benefit assessment. It was deemed better to focus attention on more accessible areas with higher populations.
At the same time, the Nepalese government viewed Dolpo, and particularly the fabled high mountain lake, Lake Phoksundo, as a potential site for luxury lodge development. Phoksundo is a startling turquoise coloured lake beside the beautiful and traditional village of Ringmo. The community of Ringmo wants to resist this development which would involve the forced purchase of land that they perceive as a hereditary and community asset. They are also sceptical of a luxury tourism that would potentially involve helicoptering guests to the 3,700 metre lake side. They want tourism that they have not only a stake in, but a say over. They are not unlike Scottish highlanders in many ways.
What is the idea behind your new company, Nomadic Skies? What makes it different from other holiday adventure companies?
The concept of Nomadic Skies was formed on a mountainside high above the village of Ringmo with Nar Bdr Jigme Lama, an experienced trekking guide and rural development expert who was originally from the far North West of Nepal. Jigme had been my partner and guide in exploring trekking tourism in Nepal and we both believed passionately that trekking needs to be done in ways that maximise benefits for the local communities.
Nomadic Skies was therefore founded as a company that would work in collaboration with mountain communities to develop and test approaches to trekking that benefit them. The initial focus is to offer small group treks to the sacred Lake Phoksundo that uses local skills and knowledge. Rather than relying on guides and staff from outside the mountain areas, we will train guides from the mountain villages who will come down to meet groups and take them up to their villages. Rather than organising treks that pass through the high mountain communities, spending a night and moving on the next day, we will spend time within and around the high mountain communities exploring the local culture, history and landscapes led by local guides and informed by local wisdom. The treks will also ensure that any pack animals used for transportation of equipment spend no overnights in the fragile high mountain pastures or forests and are sent down to the lower levels where there are more plentiful food supplies. The first 16-day trips will take place in November this year with four trips planned in 2019.
We will also use any financial surpluses generated through these treks to invest in the development of services for tourism. An initiative that Nomadic Skies aims to support is the development of a small folk museum in Ringmo to explain the lifestyles and culture of that region.
How long did it take you to set up?
It took more than two years from the first concept for Nomadic Skies to organising the first trip, in November.
Tell us about the talk you’re giving in Edinburgh?
Nomadic Skies has teamed up with the aptly named Nomads Tent, an Edinburgh based importer and retailer of highquality rugs and artefacts from Asia and the middle East. Today we will host an evening presentation and discussion to take people on a photographic journey to Lake Phoksundo and to explore and discuss the opportunities and challenges of ethical tourism among remote and fragile environments and cultures.
What’s next for you?
Our longer term aim with Nomadic Skies is to develop tented camp routes in the Tibetan cultural valleys of North West Nepal. We have begun to design a luxury tent that is inspired by the traditional gurs – the tents of nomads in North West Nepal and Tibet. These camps will be fixed and professionally managed, but developed as a joint venture with the local communities. The aim is to create a form of trekking with lower numbers but higher income to local communities, that provides less seasonal and more permanent employment. This will stimulate a regular demand for certain food and other inputs from local communities, will not require the purchase of land and will not have a negative environmental impact. We aim to provide community ownership in these camps as well as opening it up to ethical investment and crowdfunding. Our expeditions this year and through 2019 will lay the foundations for our longer term vision for a new model of ethical and more environmental tourism in remote Nepal.