FICA, Royal Enfield and Ladakh Arts and Media Organisation (LAMO) present
On Ties that Bind
Ecological and Cultural Practices of Care
A Symposium in Ladakh
4–6 September, 2026
LAMO Centre, Below Leh Palace, Leh, and Pit Stop Kharu
In conjunction with our two venue exhibition, Nyantag. Hear, Here at LAMO and Pit Stop Kharu, FICA, Royal Enfield and Ladakh Arts and Media Organisation (LAMO) present a symposium gathering practitioners engaged in practices of care of land, people and places in the Himalayan region. An extended forum from our ongoing THF Dialogues series, the symposium is an attempt to explore shared understandings and diverging pathways bringing various contexts, histories, borders and practices into dialogue, while acknowledging, and heeding to the local landscapes, their stories and how people are telling them. Spanning three days, the programme consists of four conversations around the themes of Pastoral Dialogues, Water Scarcity, Material Culture, and Story-telling.
Friday, 4 September, 2026 | 4:00 – 5:30 PM Welcome & opening
PANEL 1: Confronting Pastoral Futures
Soujanyaa Boruah and Shyam Lal (Artist Duo) Tsering Ladol (Herder), Tashi Morup
Moderated by Stanzin Yangchan
We invite you into the dera presented within the exhibition by Soujanyaa Boruah and Shyam Lal for a conversation on how nomadic communities in Himachal Pradesh and Ladakh relate to changing land relations and climate. Speaking from their on ground experiences, the panelists will address eco-anxiety, on what happens to the animals as pastoral communities shift to other ways of life and what it means to think with the more-than-human, on why pastoralism needs to continue and on what terms.
Saturday, 5 September, 2026
PANEL 2 : Embodying Memory: Place, Materiality and Forms of Knowing
| 2:00 – 3:30 PM
Arieno Kera, Tsering Motup Siddho, and Wasim Ashoor
Moderated by Latika Gupta
This panel will bring Arieno Kera, Tsering Motup Siddho and Wasim Ashoor together in a conversation about the relationship between sites, material cultures and the relationships that they engender, as living evolving systems of belief and everyday practices. Asking critical questions about tradition, heritage and preservation, we will discuss ideas of continuity as well as rupture in sites across the Eastern and Western Himalayas, with a focus on material histories, collective memory and knowledge practices in rapidly transforming places and societies.
PANEL 3: Rhungs: The stories we tell
| 4:00 – 5:30 PM
Millo Ankha, Tsetan Angmo, and Zainab
Moderated by Eva Arambam
This conversation traces modes of storytelling through the practices of Millo Ankha, Tsetan Angmo, and Zainab exploring what forms of stories emerge from within the landscapes they inhabit, what narratives we draw from and build toward for the world we want to see. The conversation situates these practices within the wider legacies and histories of storytelling from the region, asking what has been passed down, and what it means to carry these stories forward now.
PANEL 4 : What are we without water?
Stanzin Tsepel and Lobzang Wantak
Moderated by Rigzin Chodon
Following a panel on the transboundary rivers of the Indus and Teesta, and river ecologies in July, we return to Kharu to take forth our dialogues on water. The panelists will speak about their ongoing research and engagement around glaciers and water through their artistic and activist practices. Speaking of different processes undertaken, whether building water conservation projects, or using art as a means to forge dialogue between scientists and community members, Lobsang Wangtak and Stanzin Tsepel will reflect on their ground work and the creative projects that have emerged from it.