Meeting Kargil
From Kuala Lumpur to Kargil
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July 25th was a special day. I was invited by Madhavi M. Peters of The Tropicalist to conduct a brief sharing session together with the wonderful students and teachers from Kargil, Ladakh. Termed as the Valley of Dreams, the Drass district is blessed with heavenly terrains and vast landscapes in the Himalayas. In a noble collective effort to restore the local ecology of a conflicted area such as Kargil, Madhavi decided to work closely with the community to raise awareness on the important medicinal plants and conserve them with scientific supervision. Together with a field expert, Fayyaz of The Tropicalist Trust Kargil and an Art Teacher, Bob of Young Artists of Kargil, they hold nature discovery workshops/classes for the highschool students in and around Kargil.
Kargil sits in one of the most conflicted regions between India and Pakistan, tucked in the majestic Himalayan mountains.
Photo by Madhavi M. Peters
Students were guided in a foraging activity prior to the webinar. Photo by Sajjad Hussein (Art Teacher of Young Artists of Kargil)
As the pandemic forced schools to shut down, they set up occassional outdoor activities and invite the students to participate. One of them being the online ‘webinar’ co-hosted with me in a session called “Illustrating Nature”.
Snippet of the webinar presentation
Snippet of the webinar presentation
I talked a little bit about the work that I am currently involved in, which is to document indigenous plants through Recalling Forgotten Tastes, the Orang Asli communities in Malaysia and the efforts to protect our biodiversity in an ever-changing global and political turmoil — in hopes to inspire them to do the same for their conservation of native medicinal plants. The second part was a demonstration on how to sketch and paint their beautiful native Marsh Orchid which is called Salam Panja (Dactylorhiza hatagirea).
Watercolour demonstration of Dactylorhiza hatagirea
Students drawing foraged plants after the webinar. Photo by Sajjad Hussein (Art Teacher of Young Artists of Kargil)
One of their ultimate goals is to document the medicinal plants from their landscapes and turn it into a guide book (which is currently in progress). More Updates to follow as soon as there are enough material for me to share here. I am most excited for them!
Even thousands of miles away, I am motivated by their level of enthusiasm and passion in bridging people across borders and not putting a stop to the learning process given the tricky situation we are in now. Their respect and appreciation towards the natural environment are evidently shown through the work that they do.
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Excuse me while I teleport myself to their magical landscapes.
If you’re keen to know more about what they are up to, please visit the links below or follow these profiles on Instagram: