Helena
Norberg-Hodge became concerned about the Westernization of native cultures when
she saw what happened to the Ladakhi ("Little Tibet") people in the
Himalayas -- For more than a thousand years they had been isolated from other
cultures and had prospered with a rich, harmonious, sustainable culture, but when
their area was opened to development and tourism in the early 1970s, suddenly
they found themselves with problems very common in Western culture - rapid urbanization,
crime, pollution, unemployment and a breakdown in family life. Helena Norberg-Hodge
created the Ladakh Project in 1978 to try to reverse these damaging trends and
instead promoted development based on Ladakhi cultural values. The Ladakh project
grew into the International Society for Ecology and Culture and works around the
world to encourage ways of living that are more de-centralized and land-based.
She received the Right Livelihood Award in 1986 for her dedication to promoting
more peaceful, just and sustainable communities.
