Ancient Futures

Written by Helena Norberg-Hodge

Narrated by Helena Norberg-Hodge, Roxi Davis and Tsewang Namgyal

Let yourself be swept away to Ladakh, a region nestled high in the Himalayan plateau. It is a place like no other. The brightest sky makes snow-covered mountain peaks sparkle for miles. Below, scree tumbles down the mountain sides, infinite shades of ocher, into winding glacier-fed streams. The streams support a surrounding tapestry of vibrant green fields interspersed with stone houses, while on a nearby outcropping, a whitewashed monastery sits, overseeing the village, linking together land, people, mountains, and sky.

Ancient Futures is a lyrical and moving portrait of tradition and change in Ladakh, or “Little Tibet", as it was once known. The book is also an engaging critique of the global economy and a call for economic localization. When author, Helena Norberg-Hodge, first arrived in Ladakh in the 1970s, she found a pristine environment and a people who exhibited remarkable vitality and joy. Not long after, came economic growth and development and Norberg-Hodge watched how a whole range of problems—from polluted air and water to unemployment, religious conflict, eating disorders and youth suicide—began to appear for the first time.

Yet this is far from a story of despair. Social and environmental breakdown, Norberg-Hodge argues, is neither inevitable nor evolutionary, but the product of political and economic decisions—and those decisions can be changed. In a new Afterword for this audiobook, she contextualizes the current big-picture crises we face and the solutions each of us can be a part of. Norberg-Hodge also introduces us to a multitude of grassroots initiatives—a manifestation of a rapidly growing localization movement. She shows it is possible to reweave the local, the human-scale, and the place-based back into our lives, without terrible sacrifice, but rather to the benefit of all humans and nature. The story of Ladakh continues to serve as a source of inspiration to anyone interested in creating a better future.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Local Futures
• Release date: Jul 11, 2022
• ISBN: 9798822607279

Helena Norberg-Hodge

Helena Norberg-Hodge has been promoting an economics of personal, social and ecological well-being for four decades. She is the Director of the non-profit Local Futures, producer and co-director of the award-winning documentary The Economics of Happiness, and the author of Local is Our Future and the inspirational classic, Ancient Futures. She was honored with the Right Livelihood Award (or ‘Alternative Nobel Prize’) for her groundbreaking work in Ladakh, India, and received the 2012 Goi Peace Prize for contributing to “the revitalization of cultural and biological diversity, and the strengthening of local communities and economies worldwide.”