The Last Artisans: Indigenous Craftsmanship Across Generations in Zanskar Valley

Zanskar, a remote valley in Ladakh, self-sustained for centuries in every way possible, holds a rich legacy of indigenous skills and crafts such as weaving, pottery, carpentry, embroidery, painting, etc., which are assimilated into its cultural identity and socio-economic structure and passed down to generations. However, with time, two significant factors played a vital role in the decline of this intergenerational transfer of knowledge. One is the development of hard infrastructure, which led to imports rather than exports, i.e., less dependency on local goods, and the other one is our formal education system, which does not emphasize indigenous crafts and skills much. So, intergenerational transmission has decreased. This paper investigates how formal education can be used to revive this intergenerational transmission in the context of Zanskar. It analyses how indigenous skills and crafts can be fused in formal education by investigating the socio-economic factors, modernization, and impact of family structure. By visiting Zanskar and interviewing artisans there, this paper examines the challenges local artisans face in today's time to survive, as few crafts are about to vanish because the young generation is not so keen to grab this knowledge. This paper provides a solution to revive this loss by focusing on culturally responsive pedagogy and place-based education. This paper suggests how to strengthen vocational education so that it can contribute to this rich heritage preservation. The results demonstrate that carefully crafted education can mediate between the need to preserve the heritage and the changing socio-economic landscapes of modern times, safeguarding the relevance of traditional craftsmanship in the present day.