Goatherd Ajang was born a year before the 1962 Sino-Indian war redrew the cold desert border separating the two powers in Ladakh. Ever since the violent border dispute driven by Cold War tensions, Ladakh’s Changpa nomads have struggled to rear the pashmina goats which provide top-quality cashmere – and Ajang’s livelihood.
Through the decades, their pasturelands have been threatened by military hostility along the so-called Line of Actual Control. Tensions peaked after June 2020, when the fiercest clashes to date broke out between Chinese and Indian forces. Scores were killed.
