G7 Individuals & Societies guest speaker: Viveck Crishna
On Monday 29 May, Grade 7 Individuals & Societies were delighted to welcome Mr Viveck Crishna in their classroom and hear about his incredible journey through Ladakh, which is in the Kashmir region of the Himalayas, searching for the ‘ghost of the mountain’, the rare snow leopard.
Mr Viveck Crishna enthusiastically shared his learning of how communities in this area of the world cope with seasonal and climatic changes, as well as adapting to economic changes brought by technological advances and a rise in tourism. These communities are learning to manage a delicate balance between protecting their cultural and natural heritage, all the while creating sustainable conditions to benefit from the development of tourism.
The G7 students learned about traditional occupations such as nomadic pastoralism and processing goats’ wool, as well as the fleece of sheep and dzos into fabrics and soft toys.
Studying the geographical features of this region highlighted the challenges of spotting snow leopards amongst snow and rocks, and the coordination that is required between villages to track and survey the snow leopard population in the surrounding mountains.
Experts, guides and photographers are at the forefront of economic development as they share their technical knowledge with younger members of the community at the Nomadic Residential School in Puga.
Mr Viveck Crishna’s account of his journey provided a new contextual framework through which G7 students can understand the importance of preserving our cultural and natural heritage through time, place and space.
Pictures are courtesy of Mohd. Imran and Morup Namgail (of Uley village), and Viveck and Brinda Crishna.
Enjoy more photographs following these Instagram accounts: