ABSTRACT
Like many other many traditional societies, Ladakh people considered the impact of all their decisions and actions on the next seven generations, taking care to remain in balance with the land which supported them. The influence of Western culture has inevitably arrived, affecting their lifestyles as well as their relationships and inner worlds. In this small society, the links between human actions and environmental change were easy to see. For example, in this region of mountain desert, they practise a system of shared irrigation from glacial meltwater; yet they could see the glaciers shrinking. American Jungian analyst Jerome Bernstein describes how indigenous cultures live in reciprocal relationship with the rest of nature, whereas Western culture has moved into an age of having dominion over the earth. Women are cast as closer to nature, seen by patriarchy as less able to think, more intuitive, instinctive, and so on- hysterical, over-emotional, vulnerable, incapable of thinking.
