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Helena Norberg-Hodge
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Ancient Futures Paperback – January 1, 2000

by Helena Norberg-Hodge (Author)
4.4 out of 5 stars 93 ratings
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Ladakh, or 'Little Tibet', is a wildly beautiful desert land up in the Western Himalayas. It is a place of few resources and an extreme climate. Yet for more than a thousand years, it has been home to a thriving culture. Traditions of frugality and cooperation, coupled with an intimate and location-specific knowledge of the environment, enabled the Ladakhis not only to survive, but to prosper. Everyone had enough to eat; families and communities were strong; the status of women was high. Then came 'development'. Now in the modern sector one finds pollution and divisiveness, inflation and unemployment, intolerance and greed. Centuries of ecological balance and social harmony are under threat from pressures of Western consumerism.

Ancient Futures is much more than a book about Ladakh. Passionately argued, it raises important questions about the whole notion of progress, and explores the root causes of the malaise of industrial society. At the same time, the story of Ladakh serves as a source of inspiration for our own future. It shows us that another way is possible, and points to some of the first steps towards kinder, gentler patterns of living.
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  1. Print length
    224 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    RIDER (RAND)
  4. Publication date
    January 1, 2000
  5. Dimensions
    5.35 x 0.71 x 8.5 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0712606564
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0712606561
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Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ RIDER (RAND); New Ed edition (January 1, 2000)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 224 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0712606564
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0712606561
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.35 x 0.71 x 8.5 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 out of 5 stars 93 ratings

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Helena Norberg-Hodge

Helena Norberg-Hodge

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4.4 out of 5 stars
93 global ratings

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Top reviews from the United States

  • J.W.K
    5.0 out of 5 stars ANOTHER WAY
    Reviewed in the United States on December 16, 2002
    Verified Purchase
    After reading this book, I suddenly realized the root problem of Western Civilization: We have no culture. Where there was once culture, we now have an expanding economic order threatening all life on the planet. Through its mechanism of growth and expansion, the global economy is conquering and converting life's diversity into an ecological and social monoculture of cash crops, Levis, soda pop and movie theatres. Perhaps moonscape would be a better word. Of course, it doesn't have to be this way. Our fast-paced, increasingly technological, capital-intensive, fossil fuel-centered, centralized, highly specialized, travel and commercial-oriented, often stressful society is by no means the end-all-be-all of human history. Murder, child abuse, drug abuse, theft, poverty, hunger, and every other problem that plagues the West are not products of human nature. The pathology of civilization is not natural or inevitable, and the Ladakhi are proof of this. Read this book and rediscover ancient, profound, life-affirmating alternatives to the modern humdrum. Discover another way of living, thinking and feeling. Important, necessary, engaging and masterfully written - this book was a treasure to read. Indeed, it was an awaking.

    A MUST READ
    45 people found this helpful
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  • tamarinera
    5.0 out of 5 stars must read
    Reviewed in the United States on March 12, 2014
    Verified Purchase
    Love Helena Norberg-Hodge's book, and her whole wisdom about development not necessarily being advancement. This book has informed much of my third-world travels, and I educated folks as I travel because of what she says. Explaining to folks in poor countries that big houses mean we need radios just to hear our newborn babies cry...that we sleep in rooms alone even when we're in a crib ("Aren't the children afraid?" one Nepali woman asked me.) That we have special institutions for our elderly because it's too uncomfortable to watch people age. It's important to communicated the downsides to our "modern" culture to help counteract all the advertising and commercial propaganda. Norberg-Hodge's insights are telling and her organization, The Economics of Happiness, is doing superb work.
    4 people found this helpful
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  • JS Philomel
    5.0 out of 5 stars Where it's really at in Ladakh--and here
    Reviewed in the United States on May 4, 2014
    Verified Purchase
    I have been to Ladakh a couple of times, staying in monasteries and in local houses. This book gives an excellent deep-level description of the very special culture there, explaining why it is so very attractive, why it is severely under threat, and why we should care. Although sometimes it's a bit over the top in the analysis of the ills of Western capitalism, every argument is well-reasoned and carefully presented. Highly recommended for people who care about the future of our own society, and of our planet.
    2 people found this helpful
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  • Dylan
    5.0 out of 5 stars Recommended
    Reviewed in the United States on January 25, 2017
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    I read this from front to back in 3 days and that is fast for me! This book keeps you engaged and it is great.
    One person found this helpful
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  • GreyFox
    5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent
    Reviewed in the United States on November 27, 2024
    Terrific book…I keep-reading it it’s that good.
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  • Eriknosh
    5.0 out of 5 stars Protect local culture against global economy
    Reviewed in the United States on May 22, 2016
    Verified Purchase
    We should all learn from this and act before we destroy the essence of humanity.
    3 people found this helpful
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  • Carno Polo
    3.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating first hand account but unrealistic analysis
    Reviewed in the United States on November 19, 2011
    The book is very interesting because it provides a first hand account of life in Ladakh by a passionate writer who loves her subject and spares no effort to understand reality in depth. Helena Norberg-Hodge spent many years going back to Ladakh and has produced a thorough study of how the land is changing under the impact of modernity.

    While I appreciate her investigations, and recommend the book, I don't agree with her main thesis, that Ladakh was a happy land where people coexisted in harmony and is now going down the drain because of globalization and modern technology.

    Ladakh in the past was a very hard place to live in: there were many wars, religious internecine and not infrequent famines because of natural events such as draught and plagues because of locusts swarming. In 2006 I have witnessed one myself in the Zanskar valley, where millions of locusts, who can eat the equivalent of their own body mass of 2 grams each day in wheat or barley, were destroying the local crop. Illiteracy was extremely widespread and the average life span was shortened by the lack of medicine and hospital care.

    I also find it difficult to understand that the "old Ladakh" model could be applicable to modern Western society, as the author suggests. Yes we could certainly learn how to respect our elders and share our resources, but it seems to me rather far fetched that we could in any way replicate that lifestyle.

    The author has also produced a movie on this subject that you can find on Youtube.
    3 people found this helpful
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  • Ron Chapman
    2.0 out of 5 stars Two Stars
    Reviewed in the United States on March 23, 2017
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    Not that interesting to me.
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Top reviews from other countries

  • Dr. H. A. Jones
    5.0 out of 5 stars How capitalism is preventing us from learning from history
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 22, 2009
    Verified Purchase
    Ancient Futures: Learning from Ladakh, by Helena Norberg-Hodge, Rider, 1992; 2nd edn. 2000, 240 ff.

    How capitalism is preventing us from learning from history
    By Howard A. Jones

    How many times have we read in our history books of societies or civilizations over-reaching themselves to environmental disaster or extinction? We have seen it in the fall of the Roman Empire and, more recently, with the Easter Islanders, creation of the Dust Bowl in America, Soviet Communism, the Peruvian fishing industry . . . and so on. Still, capitalist greed and the quest for ever more power and control drives western businesses to try to `improve' life within `primitive' societies by introducing western technology. But, as the author points out in the Introduction, `the Western development model, far from being "the answer", is culturally, psychologically and environmentally unsustainable.'

    Ladakh is one of the latest victims of the onward march of globalization. Ladakh is a formerly isolated Himalayan territory of two districts, one primarily Buddhist, the other mostly Muslim. This book focuses on the Buddhist community and how their lives have been blighted by this attempt at westernization. We might view this attempt more kindly if we believed it was genuinely directed at improving the welfare of local residents, but capitalist philosophy being what it is, it is almost certain that the prime concern was exploitation to increase profits.

    The author lived amongst the Ladakhis for many years and saw the society change from one that involved days of arduous work amongst a happy, cooperative and essentially contented people to one involving equally arduous but alien work with `labour-saving technology' within a highly competitive society that has now become plagued with drugs and internecine squabbles. Where once friends and neighbours would help one another to build their homes, and exchange services, food and other commodities, where children respected their elders and the community cared for the weak and elderly, now supplies must be purchased from western conglomerates, formerly recycled resources are discarded so that new commodities can be bought, and within the society it's every man for himself.

    This is a sad and salutary tale from which those who would listen would learn much. It is a prime example of what not to do to try to bring indigenous peoples into a western twenty-first century lifestyle. The story is engagingly told by an environmentalist with first-hand knowledge gained from the people themselves by living amongst them. The book is highly recommended.

    Dr Howard A. Jones is the author of The Thoughtful Guide to God (2006) and The Tao of Holism (2008), both published by O Books of Winchester, UK.

    The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight: Waking Up to Personal and Global Transformation
    Eco-Economy: Building an Economy for the Earth
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  • rsk
    5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book
    Reviewed in India on August 30, 2023
    Verified Purchase
    If your want to know more about Ladakh and it's people, this is the boom you should read. Excellent first hand experience narrative by the author.
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  • Louise da Rocha Vasconcellos Crivelenti
    5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful insight into modernization and its consequences
    Reviewed in Brazil on April 25, 2015
    Verified Purchase
    I had always heard about the effect modernization and globalization had on peoples across the world but Helena Norberg took it to the next level. Her being one of the first 'foreigners' in Ladakh, India, she depicts the whole transformation the place went through, with a very careful perspective. As a reader I really felt the pain of every-day small things that modernization changes as well as the big things. It made me fully aware and concerned of the gravity of this issue. Something that I had never truly internalized before.
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  • Sophie
    5.0 out of 5 stars A transforming experience
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 7, 2018
    Verified Purchase
    Loved this book! Not only an objective discussion of the current development discourse, but also some beautiful notes about simple happy life.
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  • N Kanitkar
    5.0 out of 5 stars A way of Life
    Reviewed in India on February 5, 2014
    Verified Purchase
    This is not just about the Ladakhi way of life. It is an invitation to experience the only way to live on our planet, a planet with limited natural resource. The European and American way of life is depleting this precious resource at a stupendous rate. In the bargain, we also pollute and harm all other species driving many to extinction everyday.

    Its time to wake up and think. What if the rest of the world, Africa, most of Asia and South America were to ape the Western way of life(read economy). We would probably need a few more Earths.

    An absolute must read.
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