Lunchtime Seminar – 4 November – Pema Wangchuk

N.B. This seminar is in-person only

Climate Change, Hard Borders and Cultural Discontent in these times of ultra regionalism - a Sikkim Story

Pema Wangchuk Dorjee

When the South Lhonak Glacier in North Sikkim burst on 03 Oct 2023, Lepcha stories of great floods no longer appeared inspired by Biblical stories, as some have suggested, or as figments of the imagination. The word glof - which has come to mean any natural disaster, as well as the reality of wider climate change - has now entered the Sikkimese lexicon. Before that, the border with Tibet had hardened in 1962, and people who straddle the highland pastures in Sikkim and Tibet, the Dokpas (yak herders), are now boxed in. Their backs are set against the closed border to their north even as global warming creeps up on them from the south. The Dokpa way of life is on the brink because of a combination of global warming complications and the demands of national security. Like trees which climb higher because of global warming until they keel over and become extinct because life can be sustained only so high in the Himalayas, the Dokpas too are getting cramped out. And while their situation is particularly dire, they are not the only people struggling to find a balance. Through their story one can begin to understand the Sikkim experience of climate change, hard borders, and cultural disconnect in these times of ultra regionalism.

Pema Wangchuk Dorjee. Currently consulting editor at Summit Times, a Gangtok-based English daily. Been a Sikkim-based journalist for the past 30 years. Co-authored Khangchendzonga: Sacred Summit, a book on Kangchenjunga, the third-highest mountain. Co-edited The Birds Have Lost Their Way, a collection of essays on climate change and hydel projects in Sikkim.