Embracing Indigenous Wisdom: Reflection from Inclusive Conservation Initiative Asia Regional Learning Exchange in Thini

The Asia Regional Learning Exchange (ARLE) brought together Inclusive Conservation Initiative (ICI) partners of Asia, and other Indigenous Peoples representatives beyond ICI partners in Asia. This learning exchange (LE) visit was facilitated by the Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities (NEFIN) and the Indigenous Peoples’ Foundation for Education and Environment (IPF) of Thailand as part of the Inclusive Conservation Initiative (ICI)—ICI is a project funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) jointly managed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and Conservation International (CI).  The event was organized from October 4–11, 2024 in Nepal. During the learning exchange (LE), we have had series of sessions in Pokhara and at Thini village of Mustang district of Nepal the ancestral land of Tin Gaule Thakali Indigneous People of Nepal. This LE event remained a unique learning and exchange opportunity for us. Sharing from fellow participants, elders, women and youth of our communities reminded us our Indigenous roots, relationships with nature and the recollection of our worldviews, and further inspired us to continue our unique lifeways untangled in local realities and nature.  We moved on like a saying, “a journey of thousand miles begins with a single step” from our homelands to Kathmandu- Pokhara-Mustang for this mission. 

Day 1: Arriving in Kathmandu with EnthusiasmFigure 1: Welcoming some of the participants in Kathmandu

We were looking forward to welcome our fellow relatives from different countries to Nepal to join our leaning journey. They arrive in Kathmandu with enthusiasm and commitments. We received the participants of the event in Kathmandu with heartful Indigenous greetings. Participants were representing various Indigenous Peoples Organizations including ECHA, WISE, PASD, IPF, IMPECT, GEF IPAG, AIYN, YAE, CI, among others. After a long journey to Kathmandu from their homeland, participants enjoyed a well-deserved evening of rest at the hotel in Kathmandu, preparing for an early flight next morning to Pokhara.

Day 2: Embarking to Share, Learn and Strengthen Relationships

Figure 2: Checking-in at Pokhara

With great enthusiasm for the learning exchange, participants from diverse organizations took flights from Kathmandu to Pokhara. The exhaustion of travel did not affect our enthusiasm; we had informal gathering, chitchat, exchanges and familiarized ourselves among ourselves after we settled down for accommodation.

Day 3: Creating a Sacred Atmosphere

Figure 3: Indigenous invocation for creating sacred atmosphere, gathering peace and prosperity, to begin the event

Our day in Pokhara began by creating a good vibe. Indigenous priest Lama (Nep: Monk/Priest) performed a ceremony. He asked Diwas Rai the General Secretary of NEFIN to lit Chhume (Tib:butter lamp) as a part of the ceremony. He chanted blessings for peace and prosperity for all, creating a sacred atmosphere to begin the gathering. This was followed by a captivating cultural performance by the Nepal Magar Sangh, featuring “Kauda” – a dance and song that tells ancient stories, prays to deities, and honors natural powers. Then, as an Indigneous Peoples’ practice, we offered Khataa (Tib: Sacred scarves) a symbol of good luck, as they were welcomed into this meaningful gathering.

Figure 4: Cultural presentation for welcoming participants

Figure 5: Kittisak from IPF highlighting the objective of the LE

After all these good ways of beginning of activities, we went a round of introduction. Then, Kittisak from IPF set the tone for the Learning Exchange, emphasizing three primary objectives: to learn from Indigenous practices, to build capacity, and to strengthen networks among Indigenous Peoples. Moreover, Jackie from IUCN presented an overview of the Inclusive Conservation Initiative. She emphasized the point that ICI is transformative effort for Indigenous-led conservation, led by Indigenous Peoples.

Figure 6: Visiting Mountain Museum to visualize lifeways and unique adaptation practices of Indigenous Peoples in Himalayan environment

We reminded the participant about ICI sub-project in Nepal tittles as SAINO, which is being implemented in ten villages, including Thini. SAINO is helping Indigenous Peoples to revitalize their relationship and recollection with their land and territories. The session in Pokhara set the scene of learning and exchange. Sharing of an overview of Thini and the learning helped participants to anticipate Indigenous Peoples worldviews, customary governance, institutions, resource management practices. These discussions also provided logistical insights for the community visit. Then we visited to the Mountain Museum, a powerful visual experience that enriched understanding of mountain Indigenous Peoples’ lifeways, traditions, and unique adaptations in the Himalayan climate like Thini of Mustang.

Day 4:  Arriving in Thini Village of Mustang

Figure 7: Mothers Group welcoming us in in the windy evening at Thini village

Ten vans with our participants left Pokhara around 9AM in the morning driving through diverse landscape and terrane of the country. We witnessed diverse ecology, vegetations, settlements, and land scape along the way to Mustang.  We needed to stop in places for toilets and short breaks. Whenever and where ever we stopped our vans, participants were busy in taking pictures. They seemed exited to witness different realities in every stop.  Along the route from Pokhara to Thini, a breathtaking view, started with lush terrain and dense forests. We then passed several other Indigenous villages and entered the Kaligandaki River valley. We crossed the World’s deepest gorge in Kaligandaki river along our way and gradually transited into Mustang’s stark, arid landscapes marked by rocky cliffs and winding river valleys. This scenic journey also provided aerial glimpses of majestic mountains and glimpses into the vibrant Indigenous culture of Nepal. By the time we arrived Thini, night had fallen, and we received a warm Indigenous welcome from the people of Thini. Then we settled into homestays within the community, where we could share experiences, stories, and practices with the host families, gaining an intimate look at the daily life of Thini.

Day 5: Exploring Indigenous Worldviews, Customary Governance and Conservation through Indigenous Lens

Figure 8: Customary chief of the village Mr. Aita Bahadur Thakali with Women’s Group offering a blessing song (Aashish Geet).

It was the 5^th day of LE. We were right on the lap of Mount Nilgiri, Mt. Annapurna, and Mt. Dhaulagiri which are ones among World’s 10 highest mountains. It was bright day and hill about 8–15-degree Celsius temperature.  On this day of Learning Exchange, we were closer to the sources of Indigenous Peoples’ knowledge and practices. We were on the breeding ground of Indigneous Peoples values and worldviews. We were accompanied by knowledge holders and the practitioners of Indigenous Peoples wisdom, knowledge and sciences. We gathered at the community hall in the morning. It was an obvious practice Indigenous Peoples — we were warmly welcomed once again in their families and territories by offering us Khataby customary Village Chief (Mukhiya) Mr. Aita Bahadur Thakali, chairperson of Youth Club and Wiemey the customary women group. Offering of Khata and traditional songs symbolized us the acceptance of Indigenous People of Thini to stay with them. Over 110 attendees, representing knowledge holders, customary leaders, and local government representatives, youth, women and others joined us in the exchange. The lighting of the Chhume (Tib:butter lamp) and a blessing song performed by the women’s group invoked well-being for all.

Figure 9: Representative from Lahu Indigenous People of Thailand sharing their practices with the Peoplesof  Thini

Figure 10: Ms. Jamuna Thakali the vice-chairperson of Gharapjhong rural municipality sharing challenges of Indigenous Peoples and challenges of Indigenous women

Figure 11: Jackie Siles from IUCN sharing IUCN’s work with Indigenous Peoples

After introductions, Kittisak from IPF once again outlined the Learning Exchange objectives, emphasizing the focus on Indigenous Peoples’ worldviews, customary governance, resource management, and cultural practices. Leaders from the villages of Thini, Chimang, and Syang described the Mukhiya system, a customary governance structure overseeing essential roles in irrigation, conflict resolution, community celebrations and other community affairs. Women’s groups also shared their roles and contributions in cultural undertakings such as their involvement in the Tyungla festival– Tyungla festival is celebrated to honor human-nature relationships. Likewise, Jackie from IUCN stated that IUCN has been supporting Indigenous Peoples for long time. Recently, IUCN membership has included Indigenous Peoples Organizations, thereby she indicated that Indigenous Peoples Organizations have voice in IUCN.

Figure 12: Visiting apple farm and sacred sites at Thini for first-hand experience with the Indigenous leaders

In the afternoon, we toured sacred sites, agricultural fields, apple farm, and cultural landmarks in Thini, guided by village chief and youth leaders. Highlights included the village’s Dzong (Tib, Thak: fort), stupa, monastery, iconic structures symbolizing protection and well-being of the village, and the sacred Dhumba Lake. We heard a lot of stories, meaning and values attached with all of those icons, structure and images. Many of us realized that those structures are the breeding ground and the center of Indigenous values and knowledge systems.  Being part and parcel of Indigenous culture and values, those Indigenous artifacts remines extremely important but undermined by outsider in many respects. Through these site visits, there was no doubt every one of us gained a deeper understanding on how deep the meaning of each and every element of Indigenous culture and heritages. It was long day yet worth keeping engaged in every step we were led to. It was cold, windy yet beautiful evening when we returned from site visit to the small community square. We had to say, “We will meet again” to the relatives of Thini, Shyang and Chimang– There is no tradition of saying “good bye” in Nepali Indigenous culture; it is to say, “We will meet again or visit again”.  They offered us Khata once again wishing us all good in our lives and communities; we transferred to Jomsom around at 6PM, right before it was too dark.

Day 6:Reflection, Recollection, Realization and Building Reconnection

Mount Nilgiri, Mt. Annapurna, and Mt. Dhaulagiri which were bright as earlier days.  We had things to bring home; memories to cherish; lessons to replicate and inspiration to continue our work. Filed with those packages of take-aways from Thini, we had to take another flight to cut our way home short. A twin otter aircraft with a total of 17 seats hit the run way of Jomsom. We said “We will meet again” once again to Mustang. The flight flew below the highs and through two huge mountain ranges of Annapurna and Dhaulagiri. Due to strong wind flow through the corridor of two massive mountains, flights are bumpy in this route; flight can operate only in the morning when wind speed is milder along the valley.  The bumpy flight in strong wind was not easy one for many of us. However, the scenery seen throughout the flight where one could see high mountains, mountain ranges, beautiful vegetation, pasture land, Yaks and settlements in the foothills seemed like a paint or an art work of a perfect artist. While getting through such evidences of the interplay of geography and culture, the plane landed in Pokhara.

Figure 13: Reflection of LE (Left to right: Stefan Thorsell (IWGIA), Maslah Rompado (NIWA), Jherricca Conny Justin (AIYN), Giovanni Reyes (GEF IPAG) and Kittisak Rattanakrajangsri (IPF)

We arrived in our accommodation in Pokhara and had a bit of time to refresh ourselves. Everyone had enough points to reflect and share after coming back from Thini.  There was panel presentations for reflection and consolidation of lessons. We also had sessions on how organizations beyond ICI partners and ICI partners including IPF and NEFIN can strengthen partnerships and collaborate with each other to advance Indigenous Peoples’ rights on national, regional, and global environmental agendas. The discussion was centered around specific Indigenous issues in Asia and their relevance for ICI implementing organizations. Participants engaged in reflective discussions and preparation for thematic reports. In break-out groups, they explored key guiding questions related to their visit impressions, challenges and strengths of Indigenous Peoples, the role of women in any initiatives.

Reflecting learning from Thini and to own communities back home was interesting. We found similarities in our communities. These finding helped us to think about collective way forward.

Day 7: Summarizing Collective Learning

Figure 14: Participants sharing their overall impressions of the LE, highlighting the resilience and strong cultural ties of Indigenous Peoples with Nature

Having learned from each other, we felt that there are many commonalities in terms of strength and challenges of our Indigenous Peoples. Strong cultural attachment of Indigenous Peoples with nature, high resilience living in harmony with natural element by regarding nature in wholistic manner — treating nature not in isolation but to honor as an integral part of human relationships, was a clear take-home message for us. At the same time, we saw some of the key challenges such as climate change causing threats, losses and damages of land, lifeways and culture. Likewise, non-recognition of customary governance and institution by government, gender inequality in some respect, cultural erosion due to multiple factors, are challenging in the communities of Indigenous Peoples. Despite these challenges, we also recognized the strengths of Indigenous Peoples. For example, continuation of customary institution despite of non-recognition of government, sustainable resource management by customary law, self-governance, and deep-rooted connections to the ancestral lands, are encouraging factors we learned from Thini.

We could compare gender role in the Thini with other communities. We found Tin Gaule Thakali women holding good decision-making position in their households. However, this is not the case in leadership opportunities in public spaces outside their home. Man seems to hold decision making positions in public fora; again, in average, Tin Gaule Thakali women are better in terms securing gender equality compared to many other cases. As next step, we see the need of fully secure Indigenous Peoples’ rights by getting legal recognition of customary law in national and global policies. Overall, we are happy to see that our fellow participants were able to build more understanding about Indigenous Peoples worldviews, customary governance, resource management, and their rights. In their final presentations, the groups emphasized the importance of amplifying Indigenous Peoples’ voices and ensuring their rights in environmental discussions, concluding with a call for continued collaboration and advocacy.

We left Pokhara with takeaway messages including recommendations and commitment to share the lessons learnt back to our Indigenous communities and continue working together. We arrived Kathmandu quite late evening.

Figure 15: Sharing recommendation of participants as way fordward for rights

Day 8: Wrapping up with Indigenous heritage site visit

While wrapping of our learning exchange event, we visited some of the Indigenous heritage site in Kathmandu and Lalitpur namely Boudha Stupa one of the largest spherical Stupa in the world listed in world heritage list by UNESCO and Patan Durbar Square a popular site with ancient places, temples, and shrines noted for their exquisite carvings. The Newar Indigenous People reside around Patan Durbar with their rich culture, tradition and lifestyle. Aside from learning by observation and discussion, souvenir shopping from different places for friends and families was important too. Those souvenirs will keep reminding us our collective responsibility of safeguarding and uplifting our culture. WE WILL MEET AGAIN!

Figure 16: Boudha Stupa

Figure 17: Part of Patan Durbar Square

Learn more about our Learning Exchange visit to Thini village and the core message we aim to convey by following our shared experiences here: