The Tibetan Picnic

The vast grasslands on the Tibetan Plateau were the home of nomadic people who, with their millions of yaks and sheep, formed the core of the Tibetan economy. Those who didn’t move about with their animals did so for trade, and movement pervaded all aspects of life. 

Cities were hubs for commerce and its inhabitants had the most leisure time of all. In summer, they sought out what they no longer had, life on the grassland, and recreated it as a source of enjoyment and relaxation. 

Sometime at the beginning of the 20th century, someone came up with the picnic tent concept, soon to become the norm, a canvas tent with a white base decorated with appliqued motifs. These could be outrageously bright and colorful or a more subdued black or navy on a white base. An older Tibetan remembers the summer picnics which took place yearly, at the time of the Zamling Chisang festival. Families packed their belongings, loaded them on carts and pitched their fancy tents, furnished with carpets, tables and cushions, even thangkas on the cloth walls, by the river. Picnic spots were carefully chosen and perfect ones had many attributes: cushy, abundant grass, a commanding view, protection from wind, and proximity to a river or stream. For two weeks, people socialized, sang and danced, cooked, ate and played games. A whole kitchen tent was set up to prepare elaborate food, families outdoing each other with fancy dishes and new culinary creations.  For children, it was paradise. They met all their friends, swam and explored, the adults too engrossed in their own activities to mind what they were doing. “The return to Lhasa, with the packing up of the tents marked the close of the school holiday. The end of the picnic was like leaving paradise to reenter the hell of my dark, boring school”, he reminisced. 

By the middle of the 20th century, picnics in Tibet were an institution that spread all over the Tibetan areas of the plateau. Picnics still last several days, and at festivals such as laptses, clan members gather to make offerings to the local deities, recreate a picnic like setting where families pitch their tents in a wide circle and enjoy themselves for several days, socializing and taking part in horse races. Monks also hold their own picnics that follow the end of the summer retreat. In Labrang, they pitch their tents on the Sankhe plain and enjoy themselves for ten days, cooking, eating and playing games.  Important lamas and scholars also made use of tents when traveling to nomadic areas to give teachings, setting up camps and attract thousands of pilgrims. 

Norden Camp, in its inspiration and set up, has borrowed from both the nomadic life style and the festive feel of the picnic, creating a  contemporary experience of the Tibetan picnic. The Luxury tent, offers a mix of comfort and feel of nomadic life, in a beautiful stop by the river, where one can be immersed in nature. The camp also prepares nature experience of the picnic with a day excursion. An hearty meal is prepared and a beautiful, isolated scenic spot chosen in advance. A makeshift hearth is built on which tea is prepared, and the afternoon spent of walks spotting marmots and admiring the wild flowers. 

TOMO x Norden founder Yidam

A few weeks ago the founding members of TOMO.video - an online directory of like minded conscious hotels - were asked to share a few insights about our own experiences in the hospitality industry. A moment to share the reality of our hotels, the process it took to bring them to life and the importance of our values to make them special. 

Below are snippets of our founder - Yidam Kyap’s answers. Please visit TOMO.video to read the rest of his answers and get inspired by beautiful locations around the world that care about our environment, society and experience. 

What motivated you to become a hotelier?

As a young adult I had the good fortune to travel to many parts of South East Asia. As many people opened their worlds to me and shared their culture, I was reminded of all that I too had that I could share with people from different corners of the world. I thought of the excitement I used to feel as a child when visiting other people’s homes but also when welcoming others to our house. I realized that this was what I wanted to do with my life; welcome people into a little space that I could call my own and share with them my land and my culture. 

What was your greatest extravagance in creating your hotel?

The greatest extravagance, I believe might be the location and the concept of Norden in itself. When we first tried to explain Norden’s vision to family and friends, people were skeptical as to who would come to stay in such a remote location. The idea of creating comfort and luxury in the wilderness was seen as an extravagance, a whimsical idea that could not possibly be financially sustainable.

Where do you feel happiest on your property?

I love the camp as whole, made up of creeks and rivers, dwarf trees and myriads of flowers. I would say that the happiest I feel is more at certain times of the day rather than a specific location. The dawn with the first light of the day, the rustle of the birds and the fresh morning dew, is by far my happiest time of the day. 

What do you consider your team’s greatest achievement?

My team is made up primarily of local nomads who came to us with no prior experience in hospitality. I feel our greatest achievement as a team is the genuine way in which we are able to welcome our guests and make them feel safe and at home. This innate ability transcends language barriers allowing visitors to experience a direct and unique connection to the land and the local community. 

What is your dream journey?

My dream journey is taking a few months off to show my daughters the Tibetan Plateau; the mountains, the valleys, the rivers and the grasslands. I want them to connect with the land that they are from and learn to love and appreciate it as much as I do.

The Spirit of Norden

The Origin

The Tibetan Plateau has been the site of human activity for hundreds of thousands of years, beginning with groups of hunter-gatherers who followed herds of wild yaks and hunted them for sustenance. With time, they domesticated the yak and led the herds across the Plateau in patterns of seasonal migration in search for pasture. 

Though the pasture may seem vast and empty, and today’s nomads are often perceived roaming freely, they have spent centuries carefully planning their movement and managing their resources. Having a complex and highly regulated lifestyle means that there is no time or space for nomads to authentically reflect and respond to the modern day disruptions that are now impacting life on the Plateau; From globalization, to climate change and the rise of urban living. 

Arrival of Transformation

Norden evolved out of the need of creating space where nomadic traditions are respected and cultivated while change brought by the passage of time is embraced. While nomads move with the changes in Season, Norden stays put, adapting to the time and place by becoming a platform to facilitate change and innovation, translating nomadic traditions and weaving them within the modern context. 

Summer

Fall

Winter

Spring

Norden and an Embrace of Impermanence

Norden is built from respect both for the plateau and our community. All structures are built above ground and the camp could be folded up in a matter of days, leaving the pasture intact, as a nomad camp would. Norden is a mirror for an inclusive and conscious change; we adapt to today’s reality and provide paths for the nomadic community around us to take advantage of the what change has brought them. 

Staying in one place has given us the power to observe what we have, how to appreciate it and transform it so that it serves us and our community: From experimenting with nomad’s basic staples for our menus at Norden, to creating unique spaces where the grounding nature of the Plateau can be observed in comfort, and redefining our use and appreciation for the simplicity of furniture and implements made for a life on the move. 

Norden provides employment for local youths, the future voice for the community, and offers a window for them to see into how other people appreciate what they may have taken for granted all their lives. In 2016, Yidam Kyap, our founder, helped a group of 20 families set up the Lungta Cooperative with their 200 yaks.

From using local material and traditional building techniques to their mission, Lungta is a transition and a space for exploring the potentials of nomadic way of living on the plateau today. While Lungta produces dairy products for the local market, visitors can also experience immersion in a nomad environment by visiting or staying at their cooperative. They also provide milk for Yidam’s nearby cheese factory, which transforms the milk into high quality cheese based on French know how.

The Future For Tibetan Nomads

The current issue faced by local nomads with modernization is in essence a concept of impermanence. That all things change - and to thrive we need to transform, revitalize and adapt. And at Norden we are exploring with our community the possibilities of how we can transform the nomadic way of life as a means to serve our community in a better way. Respect of tradition, and the openness that allows transformation through innovation is the basis for moving forward.

Norlha's Home Collection

Nomads are a people of essentials. Their focus is on their herds, taking their animals to new pastures and managing a highly complex process that demands the herder’s constant awareness and synchronization with his beasts and the environment they share. Tibetan nomads come from a complex culture, rich in arts and literature, but because they move, they have simplified their life, retaining only what is essential to their needs. We have much to learn from this combination of complexity and simplicity.

At Norden, we have extracted the essentials of this lifestyle, in a way that it can be shared with those coming from outside its sphere. At Norlha, we have combined the materials the nomads use in their everyday life with their transformation through spinning, weaving and felting, creating new livelihoods as well as an awareness of the beauty precious materials and highly skilled hands can bring about.

Morning at Lungta Cooperative

The Lungta Coop brings together 19 nomad families from Tsayig, an area over the hill from Sangkhok. Most people in the area lived from a mixed economy, a combination of farming and yak and sheep herding. Lately, they found the area could not support large numbers of yaks, and under the guidance of Yidam’s older brother, they formed a cooperative they called Lungta, and pooling their resources, leased pasture in Sangkhok, moving there with 140 yaks.

Twenty years ago, the Sangkhok grassland, along with many other areas, was divided up between the local nomads each parcel fenced off. Over time, some nomads chose to sell their animals and lease their land, as in the case of the pasture acquired by the Lungta Cooperative.

Lungta has 140 yaks, that are milked daily. The milk is made into butter and yogurt which is sold locally and highly popular and appreciated for its purity. Next year, Lungta will be establishing a cheese factory, modeled on the small enterprises that exist in remote areas in the French and Swiss Alps, and produce hard and semi hard cheese. A French expert has already visited the area in the Spring and the building is planned for construction early next year.

Milking the dris takes place twice a day, early in the morning and in the late afternoon, when the animals return from the wide grazing areas that extend all around the Cooperative. I visited on an early foggy morning. The dris were tethered, waiting patiently for their turn, while the yeko, the babies born in the Spring hovered around their mothers, or played in groups. Up on the hill, the horses were let out of their corral, while the mastiff barked at the intruders. We had milk tea in the large yak hair tent, which was warm and cozy.

Building Log Cabins

Norden began by housing its guests in yak hair, and after a year of just those, Yidam decided to explore further and create an interior that would offer more shelter and could be used longer into the season. He looked at another traditional dwelling, used in the forest areas of Kham and Kongpo; the log cabin.

The only examples of log cabins he found made for quite simple living, but he took it as a base, and with a local builder, nicknamed ‘Apple’ for his red cheeks, went on to design the contemporary Tibetan log cabin, complete with a deck and a small attached dry toilet.

Apple had never built a log cabin, but putting to work his skill as a wood builder, he soon came up with a solution that was attractive, saved on the wood, pine farmed in Manchuria and available locally, and was properly insulated. The result is a mix of East and West, with large windows and in some cases, skylights, where one wakes up to the birds, who noisily hop on the roof and build their nests under the eaves. The cabin is elevated on tires to keep it dry, with enough space for sheep to snuggle under, though this only happens off season when the animals are back in the ‘lowlands’ (3200 meters)

The Lungta Cooperative

A week ago, my son in law Yidam told me he had something new to show me. We drove a few kilometers from the camp, then branched out on a narrow, steep track to the top of a hill. There, scattered on green hills, was a whole new world, introduced to me as the Lungta Cooperative.

Founded by a group of farmer/herders from Tsayig, Lungta is a groundbreaking enterprise. Begun this year, when a number of Yidam’s cousins requested his help in transforming their livelihood, it is meant to accommodate their skills into the changing world and the opportunities it may offer.

Spread over 100 hectares of rolling hills, the cooperative comprises 140 yaks, six mud colored cabins, a yak hair nomad tent and other tents and is manned by twelve nomad men an women. They built a cheese cellar modeled on the ones Yidam saw in the French alps some years ago and are beginning steps to bring a cheese maker from France or Switzerland in view of making a quality yak cheese as well as packaged butter for the local market.

Another of the cooperative’s projects is to organize stays for city teenagers and young adults and give them a feel for country life in Tibet. The Lungta Coop members worked all summer to build the cabins and cheese cellar themselves. They are proud of their enterprise and look to a new future. One of their first customers will be Norden camp, where their products will be sampled at the highest level.

Norden's Beginnings

Four years ago, Norden Camp opened for the first time on June 23rd. We started small, with four accommodation tents that Yidam had designed from yak hair material, four canvas tent in Tibetan picnic tent style, a log cabin lounge, the sauna and a large yak dining yak hair tents. Our first clients were a group of French travel journalists who cheerfully made due with what we had. The idea soon caught on, and Tibetan, Chinese and foreign visitors soon followed. Work had begun in early April, with the traditional clearing of the land from obstacles, a ritual where monks request the local spirit dwellers to move or co habit in peace. It was our aim to retain the character of the land by avoiding structures that required foundations; all our buildings are light and lifted above the ground. There would be no plumbing or running water except in the shower blocks and the toilets were built in the dry Finnish style. The land was leased from a local nomad and it was agreed that his animals were welcome to wander about until they left for higher pastures in June, returning in October. Sheep found the place so accommodating that they tried to settle in the space under the tents, shaking the floor and unsettling the guests.