Migration and Change in the Himalayan Highlands

 

High in the rugged mountains of Nepal, communities in the valley of Nubri are confronting rapid changes. In recent years, the majority of school-age children from Nubri leave their villages to be educated in boarding schools or monasteries outside the valley. What opportunities do these children have once they finish school, and what happens to these ethnically Tibetan communities if the children never come home? Anthropologist Geoff Childs, who has been working in Nubri for decades, explains a complicated story of outmigration and cultural change.

 

Credits: 

A mother with her son who returned to the village of Nubri, Nepal, as a teacher after attending school abroad. Photo courtesy of Geoff Childs.