Changpa

The Changpa, whose name means northerners in Tibetan, are the semi-nomadic pastoralists of the Changtang, a high plateau running from Rutok in western Tibet into south-eastern Ladakh. Their country was once part of Zhangzhung, the Bon kingdom of western Tibet, until it was absorbed by the expanding Tibetan Empire around 634.

They herd yaks, sheep and cashmere goats, whose pashmina wool they traded westward to the weavers of Kashmir, and pitch black tents along seasonal migration routes. In Ladakh the nomadic Phalpa move between the Hanle valley and Lato, while the settled Fangpa keep six permanent villages. They speak Changskhat, a dialect of Tibetan, and follow Tibetan Buddhism.