Tashi Delek!
Welcome
Hi. I’m Pasang.
…mother, anthropologist, researcher, educator from Pharak, southern part of Mount Everest region in Nepal.
I am an Assistant Professor of Lifeways in Indigenous Asia at the University of British Columbia.
I use ethnographic methods to study everyday concerns of Himalayan people in order to normalize our experiences and represent us as equal partners in decision-making spaces.
I believe that our sustainability as a Sherpa people in the wake of climate change depends on keeping our songs and stories about people, places and things alive for the next generation.
My current research applies community-based approach to exploring the possibilities of collective survival on warming planet.
Knowledge Justice Collective
The Knowledge Justice Collective was born out of conversations between Himalayan scholars (2019-2022) Costanza Rampini, Mabel Gergan, Pasang Yangjee Sherpa and Ritodhi Chakraborty on plural climate studies framework for the Himalayas, and between Ritodhi Chakraborty and Pasang Yangjee Sherpa (2022-2023) on critical reflections on the IPCC and Himalayan climate knowledges, with encouragement from our UN Foundation colleague Kristyn Ostanek (2022), following Ritodhi and Pasang’s joint presentation at the IPCC pavilion in COP 26.
The collective seeks to respectfully advance meaningful engagements across knowledge systems. This begins with the recognition of epistemological value of Indigenous Knowledges in solving world problems. For the last two years, the collective has focused on systematically reviewing the IPCC AR6 to identify how Indigenous Peoples and Indigenous Knowledges have been included in this authoritative scientific report on the state of the planet. This led us to collaborate with geographer Eric Nost in further understanding the global landscape of climate knowledge production and the ways in which Indigenous Knowledges have been engaged with. This project has benefitted immensely from the research assistantship of students at UBC: Amrit Tamang, Charlotte Taylor, Declan Taylor, Ramudi Samarasakera, Sayano Izu, and Thanh Le.
**Pasang co-authored “Toward more ethical engagements between Western and Indigenous sciences,” published by Facets.
Featured KJC Articles:
“A Plural Climate Framework”
Current Opinion in Env. Sustainability
“From Adaptation to Justice”
Climatic Change
“Mountains of Inequality”
Ecology & Society
Biodegradable Blessing
ANG DOLMA SHERPA, KALZANG DORJEE BHUTIA, AMY HOLMES-TAGCHUNGDARPA, PASANG YANGJEE SHERPA
Bird looks at the material remains of lungta and khata in Khumbu, Nepal, May 2023.
BIODEGRADABLE BLESSING IS A PROJECT OF LOVE FOR OUR PLANET AND all SENTIENT BEINGS…
Lungta (prayer flags) and khata (ritual scarves) materially embody the prayers and blessings that protect life across the Himalaya, and beyond. Important life events are marked with khatas, and ritually important times of the year with lungta. The omnipresence of these materials is possible because of the mass-produced synthetic fabric containing chemical dyes that are readily available and affordable. The widespread use of synthetic lungtas and khatas have replaced the traditional practice of making them with locally-sourced ingredients such as grains, soil, and smoke. The loss of this practice also means the loss of ancestral knowledge of living with the ecological matters that make up the life of a spiritual merit-earning Himalayan person.
Ang Dolma is at the center of this project. Her environmentally-friendly lugta and khata were already gaining traction in Kathmandu, when she connected with Kalzang, Amy and Pasang in 2022. Today, the team is expanding conversation around biodegradable blessing through public-facing essays, prayer-flag making workshops, and educational talks to raise awareness about plastic prayers, ancestral wisdom, and planetary health.
**Read more on how the team has been “Replacing Plastic Prayers with Biodegradable Blessings in the Himalayas” in Sapiens.
Public
‘OUR SURVIVABility IS AT STAKE’
Sangita: What is at stake if we continue to disregard inequalities and different ways of understanding socio-ecological relations, loss, and climate change?
Pasang: Our collective survivability is at stake. For example, Chief Ninawa Huni Kui from the Amazon has warned us of the mass extinction in slow motion. (4) When we disregard inequalities and different ways of understanding socioecological relations, loss, and climate change, we are privileging the same systems and structures that brought us to this present moment of climate and nature emergency. Within the existing structures, the vulnerable groups keep growing, while the groups who are considered safe are contracting. During the COVID-19 pandemic, for example, some individuals and groups did fine, and some even profited financially, as their needs were met. Yet, who was serving those needs and at what expense? People experience different kinds of vulnerabilities, and we need to understand that.
Sangita: What makes you hopeful?
Pasang: What makes me hopeful is knowing that there were many who came before us, many who are with us and many who will come after us in working towards making a just, livable planet for all. This knowledge is based on an acknowledgement of our responsibility to care for each other, whether in the human form or not. It is about knowing our relationship to each other and honouring it. I am hopeful because of the tireless effort of Indigenous leaders, scholars, and intellectuals who have shown us the pathways to creating the future I want to see for my children and grandchildren. My commitment to keeping our Sherpa songs and stories alive for the next generation gives me hope.
A conversation between Sangita Thebe Limbu and Pasang Yangjee Sherpa. Published in ALERT Autumn 2023.
Hard rain is already falling
Latest scientific assessments show that even if global warming is limited to 1.5C, warming in the Himalayas is going to be higher than the global average. Glaciers are projected to melt at an even faster rate than previously predicted. Living with the looming threat of a glacial lake bursting its banks is a reality.
…..
Climate sciences pursue the quantifiable. And so, climate change discussions at the policymaking level have fallen short of recognizing the uncertainties Himalayan people face.
For those experiencing climate change in the high mountains, uncertainty comes not only from unpredictable rain patterns, but from not knowing who − in the physical world and other worlds − can provide stable ground.
From the essay published in The World Today (October 2021). Read the essay here.
MOUNTAIN AS METAPHOR: A FUTURE OF MULTIPLE WORLDVIEWS
A mountain is a metaphor. To imagine a future of alpinism is to imagine the kind of future we, collectively as global citizens, want to create on and off the mountain. The gift of history offers us an advantage. The knowledge we have inherited orally or textually shows us what to leave behind and what to take forward. Each of us has a choice to make. I dream of a future that is just and fair. What would that be like? This question cannot be answered without coming face-to-face with our present reality.
…..
In the future, I hope alpinism is able to project multiple worldviews together at once—not as a competition to establish a hierarchy, but as a way to learn from each other and to treat everyone with dignity. I hope alpinism is not just about stepping on the mountain, but about strengthening our relationship with it and with each other. I hope that the mountains are not reduced to commodities for sale; that we are able to see and hear the people whose labor makes the mountaineering tourism industry possible; and that we recognize that they are indispensable, not disposable.
From the essay published in Alpinist Magazine 75 (Autumn 2021). Read the whole essay here.
