ABSTRACT
Kharnakpa are one of three groups of Changpa, people of the ‘northern plain’ or Chang Thang, a vast high-altitude plateau extending beyond Ladakh’s disputed eastern borders into Tibet. Numbering approximately 1,200 in all, they were largely pastoralists until the 1980s. Since then, over 80% of Kharnakpa have settled bit by bit to urban life, mostly in a ‘colony’ near Leh known as Kharnakling, 175 km from Kharnak. This chapter focuses on the journey of one image and a house name to the Leh area. Unlike the ‘weaver’s house,’ Taskhan, and Buddhist smallholders in general, pastoralist and Muslim houses are usually known by the names of their senior men, which change every generation. Pastoralist lifestyles carry an iconic significance for many Ladakhis, whose views are represented in publications about pastoralism such as the anthropological monographs that appeared in the 2000s. Photographs can carry a ‘certificate of presence’ and suggest a likeness to Ladakhis as to Europeans.
