Snow-capped mountains and green hills covered in pastureland surround us at about 4800m amsl. When looking very closely, one might distinguish tiny, colourful dots on those green hills: it is so-called 'yartsa season' for the people of Dho. Every year in May and June, thousands of people climb several hundreds of metres up the hills and mountains that surround them, in search of a tiny fungus-caterpillar called yartsa gunbu. This Himalayan caterpillar is in big demand internationally because of its aphrodisiac and medicinal qualities. This demand has changed the living standard for those who are able to find it, but recently, overharvesting in combination with climate change is taking its toll on this very valuable, niche resource.
Figure 2. Four Buddhist chortens (stupas) in front of a gompa in Dho valley (E. Smith, 2022).
Dolpa's landscapes, cultures, language and people are distinctly separate from the rest of Nepal; rather, they are closer related to Tibet. Its stunning landscapes have inspired internationally renowned books and movies including Nepal’s first Oscar-nominated film ‘Caravan’ (shot exclusively in Dolpa). But despite international attention, Dolpa is still largely ignored by central government, and the region is often exploited for its medicinal plants (including wild cannabis, a large variety of orchids and mushrooms, etc), pasturelands, and indigenous knowledge by outsiders.
Dolpa is Nepal's largest and remotest district. It is the district of yaks, snow leopards, eagles, musk deer and blue sheep (which are accidentally not blue in colour). It is also the district of nomads and living with the seasons: moving from higher to lower grounds and vice versa is part of a yearly cycle. But Dolpa is currently at a crossroads. Limited 'development' as driven by central government and foreign stakeholders has reached the region selectively, resulting in half-finished roads and other infrastructure projects scattered around the landscape. As a result, mules and horses are still the main form of transportation for anything from tin roofs and flatscreen TVs to food supplies and mattresses.
Figure 4. A hotel tent surrounded by extensive vegetable gardens. Some valleys are more conducive to crop production and gardening than others (E. Smith, 2022).
Social media access provides information about what is available outside the Dolpa bubble but does not make this attainable or accessible. Roads, electricity, heating, stable internet access and other basic amenities, let alone luxuries such as varied foods and methods of transportation, are still primarily experienced through a phone screen. So, although phones have brought the globalized 'outside' in, it requires a lot of mental gymnastics for the people of Dolpa to consolidate local reality with globalized digital experiences. Dolpopa selectively balance their need to participate in the global market economy with a focus on localization and placemaking out of necessity due to their isolation.
Modernization therefore comes with mixed, and sometimes unexpected, consequences for Dolpa. For example, Dolpa's children are often sent to Kathmandu, India, or further afield to gain what is considered better quality education, for which they are separated from their family for years. During that time, they often forget Dolpa's people, villages, landscape, culture and religion - instead, they become accustomed to city life. A reverse culture shock happens when they return to their village and reunite with their family. Yet most of the younger generation I speak to has found ways to express and celebrate their Dolpa origins while also tapping into cosmopolitanism through e.g. clothing, accessorizing, vocabulary, behaviour etc. For example, one of my interviewees proudly shows me her see-through smartphone case, covered in stickers with quotes from popular Korean drama series, combined with dried yartsa gunbu squeezed between her phone and the case: the perfect tribute to a life lived between worlds.
Figure 1. A typical tent camp for yartsa gunbu collectors in Dho valley (E. Smith, 2022).
I am in this remote region of Nepal for fieldwork for three different projects. This morning, my research assistant/trekking guide Zinpa and I are interviewing yartsa harvesters about the criminogenic potential of this Himalayan caterpillar. In the afternoon, we are visiting one of the nearby gompas (monasteries) to speak to the local monks about inventorying their monastery's religious artefacts. Nepal's religious and cultural objects have been the victims of looting and trafficking for the past seventy years, and the Dolpa region is no exception to this. Every monastery we have visited so far has been the target of thieves responding to ongoing market demand for Dolpa's cultural heritage. It is devastating to hear monks accounts of the thefts and their consequences, all because foreign demand has put a price on living heritage.
Figure 3. Dolpa’s stunning landscapes never fail to impress (E. Smith, 2022).
Placemaking in Dolpa has become a continuous navigation of selectively letting 'machines' and other modernization in, while maintaining the structure of its society through customs, traditions, beliefs and public spaces. Greenhouses are becoming more critical to food security, diversifying diets consisting primarily of crops from the field (potatoes, buckwheat, barley, rice) and extending the vegetable growing season. This has not yet impacted the popularity of instant noodles though, which together with dal bhat and yak butter tea gets most of the Dolpopa (people from Dolpa) through the day. Affordable products from China have become easily available in Dolpa, especially as much is traded in exchange for the aforementioned yartsa gunbu. As a result, traditional dress (tsuba) is making way for tracksuits and jeans. Chinese- imported motorbikes are an increasingly popular way of transportation and status signalling in some of the valleys. Solar panels don every house and tent to ensure phones and power banks are continuously charged.
Figure 5. Dolpa’s dazzling turquoise Phoksundo Lake (E. Smith, 2022).