ABSTRACT
How do high mountain communities, facing the grave effects from climate change and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the local tourism industry, perceive and navigate multiple protracted disasters? This article takes up this question from the perspective of a specific mountain community, that of Mustang, a culturally Tibetan region of Nepal bordering the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), China. Our findings stem from collective ethnographic research conducted with Mustangi communities in Nepal and among the diaspora in New York City to investigate the nexus between high mountain livelihoods, particularly tourism, and the consequences of two distinct yet interlocking disasters: climate change and the global health crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic. We argue that the pandemic has undermined elements of Mustang’s economic future and simultaneously prompted a resurgent appreciation for and reliance on more traditional modes of community governance and social support. The fact that these dynamics are unfolding amidst ever-present concerns over the effects of climate change in the Himalayas, against the backdrop of labor- and education-driven outmigration, adds a profound layer of complexity to thinking about the future of tourism but also of Himalayan lives, from built infrastructures to the community resilience needed to sustain both.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank communities throughout the Mustang district and Mustangi communities elsewhere in Nepal and New York City for sharing their perspectives and extending their hospitality during field research. We acknowledge that this research dealt with challenging topics during stressful and difficult times for many families, and we appreciate our interlocutors’ willingness to participate in this work.
Notes
1 Bön is the term used to describe the pre-Buddhist religious traditions of Tibet. Bön is one of five schools of Tibetan religion, the others of which are Tibetan Buddhist in orientation. While Bön and Buddhist households coexist in many villages in Mustang, Lubrak is the only remaining village in the district that identifies fully as a Bön community. See Ramble Citation2008; Samuel Citation1993; Shneiderman Citation2006.
5 The Hindu Kush Himalaya and Tibetan Plateau is a region often referred to by scholars and researchers as the “water towers of Asia” or the “third pole” in reference to the largest areas covered by glaciers and permafrost outside the north and south poles (Erikkson et al. Citation2009; Lord Citation2016).
7 More specifically, we draw on ethnographic data collected between January 2020 and November 2021 in Mustang, as well as on previous collaborative scholarship that focused on the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on notions of mobility and precarity among Mustangi migrants to New York City. For the latter, see Gurung et al. Citation2021.
25 Gautam and Khatri Citation2021. According to official data, Nepal had 1.17 million tourist arrivals in 2019, generating Rs. 240.7 billion.
29 According to Galen Murton, “Today in Mustang, as in so many other places around the world, road developments are at once promoted as great equalizers even as they, in fact, reinforce long-standing social and economic stratification.” Murton Citation2017, 540.
31 Personal interview, October 3, 2021, Yara.
32 Personal interview, July 24, 2021, Lo Monthang.
34 McGranahan Citation2010, Murton Citation2019; Ramble Citation2008. It is also important to note that communities throughout Mustang historically have governed themselves, despite Mustang’s geopolitical sensitivity as a borderzone.
35 Such dynamics around disaster management and response are not unique to Mustang or Nepal. Deadly floods in Pakistan in 2010 and 2022 demonstrated how insecure land rights rooted in a British colonial political patronage system makes it challenging for farmers who rent land to make changes or prepare for climate-induced disasters. See Aijazi Citation2022.
36 On July 12, 2021, Oli was replaced by Sher Bahadur Deuba in the wake of allegations that the Oli administration had violated constitutional principles. See Gurubacharya Citation2021.
41 Many residents of Dakarjhong and Phelak spend the better part of the year in Kathmandu, leaving their homes and fields in the care of migrants from Dolpo, a district just west of Mustang where conditions are, in some respects, even harsher than in Mustang.
42 Despite growing global interest in Himalayan environments, “international environment and development agencies have consistently sought to understand and address the challenges of the Himalayas … but without any effective impacts on the livelihoods of local people or the mountain ecology.” Satyal et al. Citation2017, 49.
45 Collins and Holder Citation2021. This low vaccine rate is despite the fact that Nepal has a strong public health infrastructure, particularly for vaccine rollout, in the form of Female Community Health Volunteers (FCHVs), who reach even remote mountain regions of the country such as Mustang.
62 As Omer Aijazi has noted, “communities strategically locate and employ the socially embedded resources available in their life worlds, proving that ultimately they are the source of resilience and strength in their recovery journeys.” Aijazi Citation2015, 21.
63 ICIMOD Citation2022. In November 2021 and May 2022, landslides in southern Mustang damaged forests and agricultural fields, injured residents, and killed livestock.
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Funding
Field research in Nepal was supported by the Public Scholars Initiative and the Liu Institute for Global Issues, part of the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada; the Claire Garber Goodman Fund, Department of Anthropology, and the Office of the Provost, at Dartmouth College; and a National Science Foundation (NSF) Doctoral Dissertation Research grant in Decision, Risk and Management Sciences (DRMS).
Notes on contributors
Emily Amburgey
Emily Amburgey ([email protected]) is a PhD candidate in Anthropology at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. Her work explores the impacts of climate change and labor migration in high altitude regions of Nepal’s Himalaya.
Tashi W. Gurung
Tashi W. Gurung ([email protected]) is a PhD candidate in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change at Arizona State University. His research interests lie in climate change, tourism, migration, and sustainability, focusing on Himalayan communities in Nepal.
Yungdrung Tsewang Gurung
Yungdrung Tsewang Gurung ([email protected]) is a freelance researcher, conservationist, and photographer from Mustang, Nepal. Yungdrung has worked on research projects with Yale University and University of British Columbia faculty and students, as well as assisted with several short film and documentary productions.
Sienna R. Craig
Sienna R. Craig ([email protected]) is Orvil Dryfoos Professor of Public Affairs in the Department of Anthropology at Dartmouth College. With expertise in medical anthropology as well as migration and social change, she has written several books focused on Mustang, including, The Ends of Kinship: Connecting Himalayan Lives between Nepal and New York (University of Washington Press, 2020).