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Langza Village in Spiti – Life above 14,000 feet

Langza Village, Spiti Valley

How is it to live in a village at the base of a 20,000 feet high mountain forever covered in snow? How does one endure winter temperatures that can go down to -20C or lower? What is like to be in the company of yaks in summer and snow-leopards in winter? What does it take to survive in such a place for centuries, when modern facilities did not exist? I went to Langza to find answers.

Langza Village, Spiti Valley
Langza Village, with 6,300m high Chau Chau Kang Nilda Peak in the background.

Langza is no ordinary village. Located above 14,000 feet in Spiti Valley at the crossroads between Tibet and India, where the sun shines strongly over a brown treeless mountainscape in summers, where no rain falls during the monsoons and the winter’s snow can hide your footprints for four months, people have lived for a millennium with little interaction with the outside world. Before the modern world could connect with the people of Spiti, they lived an isolated, nearly self-subsistent life depending on their crop of barley for cereals and livestock for every other needs. They worked hard through the summer months, growing the year’s food and herding their sheep into the high-altitude meadows. The barren winters were for a slower pace of life, for festivities, celebrations and weddings, where barley chang flowed free from a yak-horn cup and the feet moved freely to the rhythm of drums. Only the strongest and the bravest travelled far and wide, to procure salt for the meal and timber for the houses. Everything else was made at home.

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Sheep come home, at Langza Village, Spiti Valley

Sheep come home. At Langza Village in Spiti Valley, Himachal Pradesh, located in a far far place at an altitude of 14,000 deep in the mountains.

Langza Village, Spiti Valley

As the sun sets and it is nearly dark, the sheep that have gone grazing during the day return home. So do the cows and donkeys.

They are not the only animals of the village. Horses do not come home, and are fetched when needed. The yaks never come – they stay grazing in the highlands and are milked and managed from wherever they are.

Animals have played in important role in the culture of these mountains. Centuries ago, when there was little movement between Spiti and outside world, people almost lived a self-subsistent lifestyle. The livestock played a key role in making it happen. They were used for meat in winter months when nothing could be grown (and nothing was imported) on the land. The fur was used for making warm clothes that are essential for the cold weather. Butter, and perhaps milk, were among the essential energizing foods that helped survive the mountain weather. Perhaps living here wasn’t possible if not for the animals.