(Wl-1355)-Neeche jana – Going down from Lahaul to Kullu

A couple travel by bicycle through Zanskar, Ladakh and Lahaul for four weeks in October 2024. They spend time with a roadworker crew from Jharkhand preparing to go down (‘neeche jana’) home for Diwali and the winter. They talk to a couple they have known for 15 years living in a high-up village in Lahaul. For the first time in recent memory, everyone in that village also ‘neeche ja rahe hai’ (is going down to Kullu for the winter. ‘Neeche jana’ is a growing phenomenon among nearly all people living in these remote and mountainous communities. This seasonal ‘vertical migration’ down from the high Himālaya underlines the ongoing changes linked with globalisation, roads, education, access to travel and winter accommodation

Asian Geopolitics and Ethnography · Geology · South Asian Studies and Conflicts