Villagers nestled high in the Indian Himalayas are grappling with lifestyle changes that are eroding their age-old Buddhist culture but opening up new opportunities.

People have long wrested a living from herding goats and tending wheat fields ringed by 6,000-metre snow-capped peaks, while Buddhist monasteries dotting the landscape are a reminder of the region’s ties to its eastern neighbour, Tibet.

Traditions are fading fast as larger numbers of India’s burgeoning middle class flock to holiday in the tranquillity of the lunar-like terrain.

“Now we can eat better vegetables and wear better clothes. The problem is people are becoming greedy,” said Tashi Phutit, an 81-year old wheat farmer and housewife.

The village residents, which is located 3,500 metres above sea level, work together to harvest the fields of each villager, before moving on to the next.

Today’s biggest change is India’s ballooning tourist industry, with the government forecasting arrivals in Ladakh to hit 3,13,000 in 2017, exceeding the region’s 2,80,000 residents and ten times the number of visitors in 2002.

The resulting strain on resources leaves vehicles clogging narrow roads, spurring worries about growing pollution and the risk of receding glaciers.

But tourism spells a more prosperous future for the youth.

Life has “become much easier and much more comfortable," says Tsering Gurmet, Phutit’s 28-year-old grandson, who is a mountain guide.

Mathematics teacher Phunchok Angmo

says schooling has improved as wealth has penetrated to the mountains but change has come at a cost.

“The children here no longer care about the culture and they spend less time talking to each other,” she said. “They spend their free time on laptops.”

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