What began last month as a spiritual pilgrimage to the Himalayas turned into an educational ordeal for Bellevue schoolteacher Katherine Woods when she was trapped in a mountain village by floods for nearly two weeks.
Woods is the founder of and a teacher at the Mountain School in Bellevue, which is based on a Waldorf School curriculum.
Woods traveled to the ethnically Tibetan region of Ladakh in northern India to study the economy and learn about Buddhism. She also had an opportunity to experience the resilience of Ladakhis in the face of a natural disaster.
In mid-August, rainstorms triggered floods in Ladakh that killed at least 190 people and swept away buildings, roads and power cables. Some 400 people are still missing. The Indus River flows through Ladakh before passing through the length of Pakistan, where floods have killed some 1,300 people and displaced millions.
Woods spent the first part of her month-long trip in the Nubra Valley in northern Ladakh, where she attended a teaching by the Dalai Lama. She then met with Helena Norberg-Hodge, the founder of the International Society for Ecology and Culture, a nonprofit organization concerned with the protection of biological and cultural diversity.
"I wanted to see the Ladakhis in particular because they have been living sustainably for thousands of years in the Himalayas," Woods said. "They are incredibly advanced in terms of consensus building, sustainable living and compassionate communication—all of the things I am interested in bringing to the Mountain School."
On the third week of her trip, Woods traveled to the village of Lekir, the site of a 1,000-year-old "living monastery" that continues the traditions of Tibetan Buddhism.
"The monastery was painted like the Sistine Chapel," said Woods, who stayed in a glass-walled guest house for $5 a night, meals included, overlooking a 50-foot statue of Maitreya, the Buddha of the future.
Sudden storms hit Ladakh on the morning of Aug. 6 and continued the following day and night, causing huge mudslides in and around the capital city of Leh, about a one-hour drive over rocky terrain from the village of Lekir.
Some people fled Lekir, but Woods decided to stay put for 11 days in a town without electricity or phone service while Indian Army soldiers worked to rebuild roads. She walked one hour each day for water, witnessed a bonfire "puja," or religious ceremony, and took over teaching at a grade school for several days because teachers were stranded elsewhere by mudslides.
"The students read and wrote perfect English," she said. "I told lots of fairytales and folk stories and we played lots of games. I was also a volleyball champion for the first time in my life."
Meanwhile, reports of many deaths from mudslides were coming in from the outside world.
"They usually only get about half an inch of rain per year," Woods said. "Their houses are made of mud and straw. You could watch the walls fall apart and the bricks dissolve."
Woods and a friend eventually hitchhiked out in a dump truck and walked over makeshift footbridges back to Leh, where most of the casualties of the flooding occurred.
Thousands of visitors travel to Ladakh each year during July and August for trekking and rafting expeditions and to experience the area's ancient Buddhist culture. As many as 2,000 foreigners were in the region when the disaster struck.
"The worst offense in Ladhaki culture is to get angry," Woods said. "'Che Cheom' means 'What's the point of getting angry?' in Ladakhi. To me it means 'Don't sweat the small stuff.'"
Woods will tell her story at the nextStage Theatre in Ketchum at a date and time to be announced. She will also show Norberg-Hodge's documentary, "Ancient Futures," a film about Ladhaki culture, as part of a fundraising effort to help flood victims in Ladakh.
Donations and ticket proceeds will go to support the International Society for Ecology and Culture.
Tony Evans: tevans@mtexpress.com
The Himalayan region of Ladakh was hit by unusually powerful rainstorms last month that killed 190 people. Some 400 are still missing. Courtesy photo
