Between the Horns of a Development Dilemma
Ancient Futures is an intriguing title for a book about development and, indeed, this is an unusual book. Norberg-Hodge raises the possibility of learning from indigenous sustainable cultures by describing a journey through Ladakh in time. The narrative jumps from descriptions of Ladakhi life to the maturation of the author's own views about Ladakh over her 16 years of visiting and sharing with Ladakhi friends and mentors. Her style switches from eulogising the dignity of the noble savage and pointing fingers at thoughtless maldevelopment wrought by the bureaucratic powers that be, to an attempt at understanding the complexities of Ladakh's uneasy status at the periphery of the global economic network.
The book has three parts: Tradition, Change, and Learning from Ladakh. In the prologue, Norberg-Hodge denounces her Western heritage which she sees as rooted in an industrial culture that promulgates centralisation, technology, a money economy, and suffers the pressures and stresses that accompany it. In contrast, traditional Ladakh is depicted as "a society in which there is neither waste nor pollution, a society in which crime is virtually non-existent, communities are healthy and strong, and a teenage boy is never embarrased to be gentle and affectionate to his mother or grandmother."