Changra and Changpa: Pashmina goats and their herders.

For the grass that you have just eaten, oh goat, Give us some good pashm. For the water that you have just drunk, oh goat, Give us some good pashm. Sit down on the grass and be still, oh goat, So that we can take out your pashm.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

As they gently comb the pashm from their goats, taking care not to hurt the animals, the Changpa recite this song. The Changpa (northern people) are nomadic pastoralists, whose yak-hair tents are scattered throughout Tibetan and Ladakhi Changthang (northern plateau), a vast and complex terrain of flat expanses of land interspersed by mountains and valleys. For centuries they have lived in this bleak high-altitude landscape, herding the goats whose pashm supplies the Kashmir shawl industry. (1)

In India the fleece of the Tibetan goat, locally known as the changra (northern goat), is usually called pashm. An Urdu word originating from Farsi, the word pashm may apply to the raw fibre of any of the down-producing animals of high Asia; when the term is used without qualification goat-pashm is understood. Pashmina is the yarn spun and the material woven from pashm.

The Changpa camp at altitudes ranging from 3600 to 4500 metres, in an extreme environment where winter temperatures can drop as low as minus 50[degrees]C. The Ladakhi Changpa number a little less than 9000. (2) However, while "Changpa" is the generic term, they are not a single homogeneous community. Groups are divided by their place of origin, each having its own chief and its specified grazing areas. Ladakh is home to 14 such groups, varying in size from 20 to 176 families, the average being about 130. One of these groups is Rupshu, with roughly 120 families, and most of this article is focused on them. While local variations exist, essentially all the groups share the same way of life and the account given here applies in general to Changpa living throughout Ladakh.

While pastoralism is the main occupation for all the groups, some of them also practise agriculture, growing barley and potatoes in what are believed to be the highest arable fields in the world. Their livestock consists of sheep, pashmina goats, and yak, as well as the horses essential to the nomadic existence. In 2007, according to official records, the number of pashmina goats kept by the Ladakhi Changpa was about 170,590; they also reared 52,549 sheep. (3)

Till the 1960s, most of the pashm for the Kashmir shawl industry came from western Tibet, and Ladakh was merely the conduit for the trade. But the Chinese occupation of Tibet, and the closure of the border between India and Tibet, together with improved connectivity with the Indian plains, changed the old-established trading patterns. Today, it is the Ladakhi Changpa who are the main suppliers of raw pashm to Kashmir.

For as long back as the Changpa can remember, they have been moving with their livestock from one pasture to another. Most scholars believe that nomadic pastoralists once inhabited the entire Changthang and that the origin of the Tibetan people is to be sought among the nomadic, non-Chinese Ch'iang tribes, who herded sheep and cattle in eastern Central Asia up to the furthest northwest borders of China many centuries before the start of the Common Era. (4) There may be an unbroken continuity between these early nomadic tribes and the large number of true nomads surviving today, depending entirely on their flocks of sheep and goats and their herds of yak. (5) However, there is practically no historical or visual documentation for the Ladakhi Changpa, apart from their own rich store of oral history, myth, and legend. (6) The numerous rock-carvings found throughout the region, and the wall-paintings in Ladakh's monasteries, are valuable sources of information, respectively, on the hunter-gatherers who may have been the region's original inhabitants, and on later courtly lifestyles. Unfortunately, neither throws any light on village or nomadic life.

All the Changpa are followers of Tibetan Buddhism, most belonging to the Drukpa (Red Hat) sect. Traditionally, each family sends one son to a monastery to become a monk. They accept unquestioningly the Buddhist cosmic scheme of a world hierarchically structured in three tiers. The uppermost level is inhabited by the gods; the lowest by spirits of the aquatic and subterranean worlds. People and animals live between the gods and the spirits, in a world which is also inhabited by demons. (7)

The three worlds follow a system of colours: white for heaven, red for earth, and blue for the aquatic and subterranean world.

The Changpa believe that their livestock are intrinsically sacred animals bestowed upon them by the gods. Accordingly, in each family's flock animals are selected to represent the three worlds. These animals, usually though not always males, are chosen depending on their physique and colour. A white animal, for example, is dedicated to the gods; one with a grey or bluish grey tinge to the spirits; and the demons are allotted brown livestock, or those with a reddish tinge to their fleece. Strong animals are always preferred, and those with well-shaped horns. These animals are specially consecrated, and it is through them that the Changpa invoke the gods for blessings, and make offerings to appease the demons and spirits.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

The presence of these animals in a family's herd is a constant reminder that the gods, the demons, and the aquatic and subterranean spirits have to be revered and propitiated. Every morning, the incense that has been burnt at the altar in the tent is taken outside and offered to the consecrated animals. At the time of the annual prayer festival they are brought before the Rinpoche (abbot) of the monastery who blesses them, offers each of them a kha-btags or ceremonial white scarf, and ties a religious thread around their necks. Special reverence is shown to these animals at the time of shearing wool and combing pashmina. These sheep and goats are never killed or sold to butchers, and loads are seldom put on their backs. When they eventually die, young ones are selected to take their place. The transition is effected by tying a tuft of wool or hair from the deceased animal onto the back of the newly consecrated one.

Among the Changpa, wealth is defined in terms of sheep, goats, yak, and dimo (the female yak). Till the end of the 1950s, almost all the Changpa remember keeping large herds of sheep and goats, the better-off owning more than 1000 animals. They kept more sheep than goats, usually in a ratio of 3:1. This was because, on the one hand, they could barter wool against grain brought up by traders from villages in Ladakh's lower valleys, Zanskar, or Himachal Pradesh; and on the other, their pashm had little value since the traders preferred the fibre from western Tibet. (8)

The next 40 years saw critical changes, with increased pressure on the pastures due to political and social developments. As a result of the Sino-Indian war of 1962, 37,500 square kilometres of northeastern Ladakh were occupied by the Chinese, and several groups in southern and eastern Changthang lost valuable pasturelands at Kangyung, where they used to migrate after the Ladakhi New Year in December and stay for about three months. At about the same time, in the wake of the Chinese occupation of their country, some Tibetan Changpa arrived as refugees and their livestock had to be accommodated; later, there was also competition from the horses accompanying trekking groups, and from a population of wild animals, mainly the wild ass, possibly increasing due to the efforts of conservationists. Inevitably, the Changpa's own practices altered. Till the 1960s, they made regular trading journeys to Tibet, Himachal Pradesh, and the remote Ladakhi valley of Zanskar accompanied by a large part of their livestock--for goats and sheep, as well as yak, were used as pack animals. The animals' absence for weeks at a time lightened the load on the pastures; but with the Changpa's gradual integration into the money economy such expeditions became unnecessary, and this relief came to an end.

As a result of all this, livestock holdings in Changthang decreased. By the 1990s, an affluent family was defined as one that owned 300 head of sheep and goats, and 30 to 35 yak, and an average-income family would have about half that number. Herd composition also changed, the ratio of sheep to goats having fallen to 3:2. (9) Several reasons were cited. With the closure of the border between Ladakh and western Tibet, supplies of Tibetan pashm were choked off; the price of Ladakhi pashm rose accordingly. At the same time, the price of wool fell. As the cash economy began replacing traditional systems of barter and exchange, and with pashm commanding a higher price, the Changpa preferred to keep more goats. Since the turn of the century, while total livestock holdings have remained more or less the same throughout Ladakhi Changthang, the number of goats has continued to increase. The ratio is now (2008) roughly three goats to every sheep, the reverse of the pre-1960 one. The Changpa expect this trend to persist, as long as the price of pashm remains high.

The increase in the economic value of goats has involved a corresponding rise in their status. The Ladakhis have a custom of assigning ritual status to even secular objects and commodities; rice, for instance, is a higher-status food than barley. (10) Among the Changpa, yak used to have the highest status of any livestock, but with their decreasing number their position is being slowly usurped by sheep and goats, more particularly the goats.

This is a new development. Sheep, along with yak, have always held a positive ritual value among the Changpa, but goats, which were evidently regarded as inferior, even inauspicious, were not so favoured. This was demonstrated in several ways. It was rare for goats to be dedicated to the gods, demons, and subterranean spirits. (11) Further, it is said that shepherds preferred sheep to goats. Sheep move slowly and so the shepherds are able to keep pace with them, but goats tread quickly and are therefore difficult to tend. It is claimed that while the shepherds talk gently to the sheep, they are always relentlessly swearing at their goats, because they have to run to keep up with them. Goats also feature in verbal insults and when the Changpa abuse each other, they say, "may your goat fall sick", or "may all your goats die".

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

To some degree, the increase in the economic value of goats has changed this. Almost all families now dedicate goats to the gods, demons, and spirits. Newborn kids are especially well looked after because they assure a future increase in the family's supply of pashm. It is only with some trepidation that goats are killed for meat. Thus, the ritual evaluation of livestock seems to correspond to their economic value. While the ritual status of sheep has not decreased, that of goats has certainly risen.

"We are the people who move behind the sheep and goats," is how one Changpa from Rupshu described his life. Most Changpa groups move camp about eight to ten times in a year. However, there are no hard and fast rules as to how long they should stay at one place; each move, the Changpa say, takes place when the resources of a particular area are exhausted. The shepherds who take the livestock out to graze will report back to the camp that the grass on the pastures is virtually finished and the women will grumble that the flow of water in the stream is reduced to a trickle and that the snow on the surrounding mountain tops is decreasing. These sentiments are conveyed to the chief, who calls all the men to a meeting and a date is fixed for the camp to move.

While the timing of the move may vary according to the availability of grass and water, each Changpa community follows a fixed migratory path. The journey to a new campsite is typically undertaken early in the morning, before sunrise, as later in the day it is too hot to walk. Personal belongings, religious items, and household utensils are packed in saddlebags or steel trunks the day before. A little before sunrise the tents are taken down and folded. As the shepherds leave with the sheep and goats for the day's grazing, the yak are rounded up and loaded. First carpets and blankets are laid across their backs, followed by saddlebags, steel trunks, tent poles, the stove, and the cylindrical churn for making butter-tea. Then the horses are readied in their leather saddles over which bright, colourful hand-woven saddle-covers are draped. It is customary for the Changpa to be well dressed for the occasion, if not in their best robes then at least their heads are adorned--the men wear their felted cowboy or brocade hats; the women their pad-rag, the turquoise-studded headdress.

It takes a few hours before the Changpa are ready to move. The caravan extends over one or two kilometres, and within it the pack animals of each tent are kept close together. The yak are driven in the front, followed by the women and children. Dogs dart in and out, barking at the yak to ensure they keep moving. The men take up the rear, leading the horses. They leave behind them a flat stretch of land, a few stone walls, and smoke rising from the embers of hastily doused fires.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

At every campsite, the location and orientation of the tents follow an underlying order. Usually each nuclear family lives in one large tent, the elderly parents having a small one nearby. At some encampments tent sites are hereditary, at others they are allocated through a system of lottery. Three tents, generally of a patrilineal extended family, are grouped together and lots are drawn for every group of three. The group that gets the highest number has first choice in deciding where they will pitch their tents. Areas higher up in the campsite, and closer to the stream, are especially coveted. The tents are usually strung out in a line along the valley, and always positioned with their doors facing east. Changpa say the doors must open towards the rising sun; it would be unseemly if the tent's back were turned to the sun. Moreover, the prevailing wind is from the west, making it impractical as well as inauspicious to have the entrance facing in that direction. At some campsites there are stone pens beside the tents; at others the animals are kept in the open a short distance away. The livestock usually sleep in a circle, with the goats at the centre and sheep on the outside. The Changpa claim that in this way the sheep keep the goats warm.

Each Changpa community has a focal point, similar to a fixed village space, usually around a monastery. Ladakhi Changthang has several monasteries, such as those at Hanle and Korzok, founded centuries ago. In the past, it was in the vicinity of the monastery that the Changpa stored the goods they did not require when on the move--surplus stocks of grain, winter clothing, animal skins, and wooden tent poles amongst other things. Initially they used small caves, or dug pits in the ground, but over the years a few one- or two-room mud and stone structures have been built. Some of these have now expanded into small homes and this is where the Changpa tend to spend the coldest part of the winter. It is also here that some of the aged and infirm live. In recent years it is at these sites that the government has been providing the Changpa with essential services such as medical clinic, sheep husbandry centre, ration depot, and feed bank.

The Changpa's day starts early. The women are the first to rise, preparing the fire and making tea, reciting their prayers as they rhythmically shake the goatskin bag to churn the butter inside.

Around eight o'clock, the shepherds take the sheep and goats out to graze in the valleys and mountains surrounding the encampment. They return a short while before sunset, the actual time varying between four and six o'clock, according to the season. The shepherds are typically young boys and girls who start herding from the age of eight or nine. At first they accompany a parent or older sibling, until they are confident of handling the animals on their own. While herding, they spend their time reciting prayers, spinning wool on drop-spindles, or making rope; or they meet up with other shepherds, light a fire and make tea. One shepherd, accompanied by a dog, herds a flock of up to 200 animals, often walking 8-12 kilometres a day. They use slingshots, made from goat hair, to keep wild dogs and other predators away.

Most of the pastures in Ladakhi Changthang are located at altitudes ranging from 4000 to 4500 metres, though a few are higher, up to 5600 metres. The Changpa have a carefully worked out system of pasture allocation that prevents overgrazing of particular pastures and ensures that the livestock will always have enough grass to eat. At each campsite specific areas are demarcated for grazing, and the herders are forbidden to take their livestock beyond the boundaries. Sometimes the boundary of each grazing area is marked by cairns two or three feet high. The chief makes periodic visits to the cairns to check or restack them. Other boundaries follow natural landmarks such as streams, rivers, and ridges. Most Changpa communities have a system of penalties and fines in case grazing rules are violated.

Besides wool and pashm, the livestock produce dung--used as fuel in the absence of firewood--and are also used to carry loads. They are milked twice a day--in the morning before they go grazing, and as soon as they return in the evening. Women milk the animals, first separating the young from their mothers and then tying the ewes and the goats in two rows facing each other. The goats yield more milk, because the kids are stronger and so are weaned sooner than the lambs. The milk is processed into butter, cheese, and yoghurt.

The peak period for lambing and kidding is between February and April. The ewes usually begin first, and the goats follow a month later. The young are suckled in the morning, then left behind in an enclosure of stones or brought into the tent if it is very cold. Early weaning is achieved by preventing kids from grazing with their mothers or by temporarily placing them in a different flock. Since most births take place in late winter, mortality is high.

Soon after they are born, the young male goats are castrated, except those selected as breeding stock, selection being based on the quality of the animals' pashm, with preference given to white. The Changpa prefer not to purchase livestock but to breed their own, because it is in their interest to retain the purity of their stock. (12) Livestock from outside may contaminate their fine breed, or spread disease among their animals.

The traders claim that the finest quality pashm comes from southeast Changthang--Kharnak, Korzok, and Rupshu. They say the excellence of the fibres reflects the quality of the grazing lands and the manner in which the livestock are cared for. The Changpa from these regions, for instance, do not always keep their goats in pens during winter. The disadvantage of keeping goats in pens is that, as they are less exposed to the cold, their pashm does not grow to its full potential; also it becomes discoloured, turning yellowish from contact with urine. In addition, the Changpa of these areas feed their livestock salt which increases the animals' strength, making them more resilient. (13)

The harvesting of the fibres starts around the beginning of June. Pashm is the first to be ready and so is harvested first, followed by yak hair and then sheep's wool. The removal of fibres is mostly done by the men, but women help out when necessary. The whole process is usually over by the first week of August; it concludes with a prayer ceremony. For all the Changpa, it is mandatory that the removal of fibres be completed before this. It is also stipulated that no pashm or wool be sold until after the prayer ceremony. In practice, deals are made with traders earlier, but the stocks remain with the herders until the prayers are over.

The pashm is removed by combing. During winter, it lies close against the goat's body, providing insulation against the bitter cold. The Changpa say it is only when winter is over and the goat eats the first new grass that the pashm rises above the surface of the animal's body and can be combed out easily. The old-style combs were locally made from yak horn or wood. Today, however, these traditional combs are seldom made; instead, combs made of steel are used. The comb consists of heavy wires bound together by finer wires, and each line is curled at the tip into a hook. The pashm as it is combed out contains an admixture of coarse hairs as well as dirt and the animal's bodily secretions. The women who clean the fibre in Kashmir reckon that on average the quantity of pure fibre in a given lot of raw pashm is no more than about 35 per cent by weight. After combing, the animal's shaggy outer coat, made up of coarse hair, is cut with metal shears, the same as are used to shear the sheep and the yak.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

A few goats are combed at a time, usually in the morning before they leave for the pastures. They may be combed again in the evening, if there is sufficient light when they return. The pashm is removed in stages; the Changpa say it keeps the animal warm, and if it were removed all at once, the goat would feel cold and might fall ill. For goats that are old or frail, the removal of their pashm is delayed, and may be done as late as August. It is said that the pashm grows faster on stronger goats, while on the less robust it takes longer.

The Changpa claim that while the shearing of their wool does not hurt the sheep, which remain quiet while they are being shorn, the combing out of pashm does cause the goats pain. They know this because when being combed the animals bleat and yelp a lot, as if in distress. Further, the comb can hurt the goat if it is not pulled correctly, especially if it is yanked roughly. It is not uncommon to draw blood while combing the pashm or even to pull on the goat's flesh, especially around the legs.

Pashm is also removed from the skins of dead goats, usually in winter or spring when mortality rates are high. However, most traders do not like this pashm--they say it is not as soft as pashm combed from a live animal. This type of pashm always sells for a lower price.

A male goat yields up to 300 g of pashm, though a really large male may give as much as 500 g. Males always yield more than the females, as the latter are smaller, and are also weakened by repeated pregnancies and milking. The female goat, accordingly, produces about 200 to 250 g. These figures refer to the weight of the fibre before it is cleaned and the coarse hairs separated out. As soon as the pashm has been combed out of the goats, it is made up into bundles and stored in large sacks or saddlebags, awaiting the traders.

At the time of harvesting the fibre, the consecrated goats are accorded special reverence. A tuft of hair is left uncut on the upper back, so that they can be easily distinguished from the rest of the flock. This is said to resemble the offering of a kha-btags to these particular goats through which the gods, demons, and spirits are propitiated. The same is done for consecrated sheep at the time of shearing.

The Changpa seldom if ever process pashm. The women have neither the time, the skill, nor the inclination to undertake the tedious and time-consuming business of dehairing and cleaning the raw fibre; and they find pashm, which lacks elasticity and is prone to break, difficult to handle. They do however work with sheep and yak wool, weaving on backstrap looms an assortment of textiles for their own families' use, including blankets, storage bags, floor coverings, and the fabric used for clothing.

The men process the hair of the goats, as well as that of the yak, using it to make saddlebags, blankets, and tents. The hair is first spun and twisted, and then woven in its natural colours on fixed-heddle looms. Dark coloured goat-hair is used to weave tent strips, often in combination with yak hair. Both dark and light colours are used to make rough blankets and an assortment of saddlebags in different sizes appropriate for sheep and goats, horses and yak; these are used to store and carry trade goods as well as the Changpa's personal effects.

This is a way of life that has lasted, unchanged in its essentials, for centuries. Today, though, the modern world is stretching its tentacles even as far as Changthang's remote pastures. Since 1947, the Indian army has had a large presence in this area, because of its proximity to the Chinese border, putting pressure on a fragile environment. The network of motorable roads that now criss-crosses Changthang is a mixed blessing. Rupshu, for instance, lies on the direct route from Punjab and Himachal Pradesh to Ladakh, and though the passes close in winter, it is traversed during the summer months by hundreds of trucks and jeeps, some of which leave the road and drive over the pastures, damaging them. Beyond the reach of motorized transport, trekking groups bring in pack animals that compete for grass with the Changpa's livestock, and leave their litter behind. It is now far easier than before for the Changpa to travel to Leh, and compare their way of life with the (apparently) less arduous one of the settled villagers and the urban elites. For some, these changes translate into a desire for education, medical care, and an overall better standard of living; and though government and non-official agencies are working to provide these in Changthang itself, one consequence has been a steady trickle of emigration, mostly to Leh, over the last 30 years. (14) While on the one hand the Changpa have recently increased the numbers of goats in their flocks, on the other, if this trend continues, there may eventually be a serious lack of manpower to look after the animals. A consequent drop in the number of pashmina goats herded in Ladakhi Changthang could have a devastating impact on the Kashmir shawl industry; but, as of today, most Changpa discount this possibility and anticipate that their way of life, and that of their goats, will continue indefinitely.

FIGURE ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

All photographs by Monisha Ahmed.

NOTES

(1) Much of the material in this article was first presented in Monisha Ahmed, "We are Warp and Weft"--Nomadic Pastoralism and the Tradition of Weaving in Rupshu (Eastern Ladakh), D.Phil. Thesis, Oxford University, 1996; Monisha Ahmed, Living Fabric: Weaving among the Nomads of Ladakh Himalaya, Bangkok, Orchid Press, 2002.

(2) Statistical Handbook of Leh, 2001.

(3) Statistical Handbook of Leh, 2007. The figures are no more than approximations because it is difficult to get the Changpa to disclose the exact number of livestock that they own.

(4) Used in a broad cultural sense the term Tibet covered a far wider area than was ever subject to the administration at Lhasa; even into the early 20th century Ladakh, the westernmost region of the Tibetan cultural world, was often referred to as Western Tibet.

(5) David Snellgrove and Hugh Richardson, A Cultural History of Tibet, Boston, Shambhala Publications, 1968, p. 21; A.H. Francke, A History of Western Tibet--One of the Unknown Frontiers, London, S.W. Partridge & Co., 1907, p. 17.

(6) Ahmed 2002, pp. 11, 31-36.

(7) Patrick Kaplanian, Les Ladakhi du Cachemire, Paris, Hachette, 1981, p. 207; Sophie Day, "Embodying spirits: village oracles and possession rituals in Ladakh, North India", Ph.D. thesis, London School of Economics, 1989, p. 69; Ravina Aggarwal, "From mixed strains of barley grains: person and place in a Ladakhi village", Ph.D. thesis, University of Indiana, 1994, p. 99.

(8) See also Janet Rizvi, "Trans-Himalayan Caravans: Merchant Princes and Peasant Traders" in Ladakh, Delhi, Oxford University Press, 1999, p. 91.

(9) It was the same amongst Tibetan nomads: "Since the price of cashmere is rising much faster than wool, goats may well end up the basis of a new affluence for the nomads. This is already being reflected in herd composition. Whereas there were three sheep for every two goats in 1981, in 1988 the ratio was one to one" (Melvyn C. Goldstein and Cynthia Beall, Nomads of Western Tibet--the Survival of a Way of Life, Hong Kong, Odyssey Publications, 1990, p. 105).

(10) For a discussion as to how this works in practice, see Rizvi 1999, pp. 125-26.

(11) Ahmed 1996, pp. 93-103.

(12) In 1972 the state government set up pashmina goat farms in Upshi and Nyoma in Changthang with the aim of breeding high quality pashmina goats. The emphasis in these farms is on increasing pashmina production per animal, producing pashmina that is uniformly white, and increasing the length of the fibre without increasing the micron count. Male goats from these farms are supplied to the Changpa for breeding purposes (Ahmed 1996, p. 113). The farms also study issues relating to the feeding, management, combing, and mortality among the goats.

(13) This is not salt meant for human consumption; instead they are fed two other types of salt, one bicarbonate of soda and the other a mixture of sulphate of magnesium with a compound of soda, of which the former is preferred. These salts are found around the lakes at Tso Kar.

(14) Monisha Ahmed, "The Changpa's Last Journey", Ladags Melong, Leh, October 2006, pp. 19-22.