Ice hockey in the Himalayas – Playing in the climate crisis | DW Documentary

Ice hockey in the Himalayas – Playing in the climate crisis | DW Documentary

My name’s Deachen, I’m 15 years old and I live in Ladakh. That’s in the north of India in the Himalayas, 3,500 meters above sea level. Watch out for my fingers! Five. Louder! One. We’re practicing with a tennis ball on tarmac, so that we learn how to handle the stick properly. I’m keen to play on real ice again. I can hardly wait for the water to freeze over. I’d love to be on an ice rink in full equipment. But unfortunately, there aren’t any rinks in Ladakh. Ice hockey’s the most important sport for us in Ladakh. I dream of turning professional. There hasn’t been any ice yet this winter. I’m desperately waiting for it because I need to train hard if I’m going to make the Indian national team one day. That’s my goal. The winters in Ladakh only last three months and we’re only able to train on the ice for a short time. Previously, the lakes froze over by early December at the latest. Now it’s already the middle of December and we’re still having to play on the tarmac. The terrible environmental pollution everywhere is resulting in global warming, and we’re feeling the effects here more and more. I started playing ice hockey two years ago. But I haven’t been able to train enough yet because I don’t have my own skates. Playing on smooth ice is much faster than on tarmac. It’s totally different. But because we don’t yet have any ice yet and your winter vacation is approaching, we’ll probably have to be patient. There’s a selection training for the national team in Deachen’s village during the holidays, give it your best shot Deachen! This is your big chance. During term-time I’m at boarding school, because there’s no secondary school at home. For my ice hockey training, I get up at 5.30am. That’s really tough. Training starts at 6.30am. We’re back at school by 8.30. I’m often tired after training. Sometimes I manage to take a short nap in a free period. I’ve been at boarding school since third grade. I’m experiencing much more here than at home in my village, and I’m always meeting new people. I’ve also become much more independent and better able to organize my time. Sing nice and loudly please. Our New Year celebration is just around the corner – a significant day! May your actions benefit all the world’s living beings. Think carefully about how you’re going to spend your time. I’ve not seen my brother for several months. He works for the Indian military and he’s on leave for our Buddhist new year. My village Chumathang is about four hours by car from the boarding school in the capital Leh. Look. I always train with my team on this lake. I didn’t have a clue about ice hockey. But when I saw my brother training, it sparked my curiosity. He told me everything about it. The lake hasn’t frozen over yet. Here’s water. It’s probably frozen over in our village. Let’s drive on. When I’m a professional ice hockey player, I want to travel the world. I imagine myself sitting in a plane with my team, seeing Ladakh from above for the first time. I’ve been away from home for a long time. It’s wonderful to be with my family. Here, your tea. It’s properly frozen. Come on quickly, before it gets dark. In winter, it always got really cold in Ladakh, down to minus 20 degrees. The lakes froze over quickly. Now, that only happens in higher-altitude areas. In our village, for example, it does still get cold enough. The ice has to be smooth, because soon, the women from the Indian national ice hockey team are coming to our village to scout for new talent at a training session. This small stream supplies our village with fresh water. When the stream freezes in winter, we have to make a hole in the ice. We need the water for all the household chores: Washing clothes, washing dishes and for drinking, of course. That’s enough. A little bit more. We have to protect our lakes and rivers and keep our environment clean. That’s important for us humans and the animals we live with here. We believe that we’ll only be reborn as human beings if we do good things in this life. Here in Ladakh, our new year festival is called Losar. It’s the time when the whole family comes together to pray. I don’t like wearing our traditional costume. But if I don’t, people in the village ask why I’m not wearing proper clothes at my age. It has to fit properly. I think that in this society, girls are often held back. But in my family, things are different. Our parents have always treated me and my brother in exactly the same way, when I wanted to learn how to skate too. I’m very grateful that they support me playing ice hockey. I going to take tomorrow’s selection training very seriously and really give it my all. If I don’t realize my dream, maybe I haven’t fought hard enough for it. This is how we keep our vegetables fresh in winter. You young people don’t know anything about growing vegetables any more. But it’s so important. I’ve heard that in other villages in Ladakh in winter, the soil is no longer cold enough to store vegetables like this. When the soil’s too warm, the vegetables rot. We’ll have that problem too. That’s very likely. Go get the basket. If global warming continues like this, it’ll completely change our lives out here in the country. The glaciers are melting at a faster rate and at some point, we won’t be able to skate in winter either. Shame you’re going away tomorrow. Yes, my vacation is over. I’m excited about tomorrow’s training. Hope I’m still good at skating?! You just need to practice more. But I don’t have any skates. Take mine. With a pair of extra socks it’ll be fine. Come here. You have to position the skates like this. Yes, quickly and then stop. When I skate I’m so happy. It feels like flying. Even when I’m angry, it just falls away. When I’m on the ice, I forget everything. If I hurt myself, I don’t feel it straightaway. I just want to carry on skating. Here, your skates! Thanks. Go for it at training! OK! Bye and have a good journey! Take care! I will. Bye. I’m so happy that my friends from boarding school have been able to come to the selection training. An ice hockey team made up of just my friends would be awesome. We’re really close. Finally, we can train on ice with the hockey sticks. I hope we can pull it off. I’m scared. Me too. I’m also really excited. It’s been a long time since I skated. That’s what I’m most worried about. If I’m falling over all the time, that won’t be cool at all. Hey, it’s already 8.30, we need to go. Oh, it’s actually happening! It’s so exciting. I think so too. Welcome! My name’s Tsewang Chuskit and I come from Tangtse. I’m captain of the national women’s ice hockey team and the vice-president of the Ladakh women’s ice hockey foundation. I started skating at the age of 10. Only boys played ice hockey here at the time. The girls did figure skating for entertainment during the breaks. But I just dreamed of ice hockey and knew my time would come. At our national team’s first international match, we didn’t even have enough equipment to go around. And when our game began, there were hardly any spectators. Today, you’re getting your kit just like that. So now show me what you’re made of. I’ve never been lucky enough to be in full kit, it makes me feel a bit like a professional ice hockey player. Stay on your line! A puck on ice glides much more quickly than a tennis ball on tarmac. Everything’s so much smoother. The most difficult things for me are handling the stick and stopping quickly. The skating’s going well. My friend Otzer is struggling. She hasn’t skated much. She’s one of my best friends and I hope she’ll improve fast. I don’t see my friends as competition. I hope we all get through. Most of the players on the Indian national team are from Ladakh and started out on a frozen pond, just like us. I’d be so proud to tread in their footsteps. At your age I had to work in the fields. I couldn’t even write my name. No one gave me the chance to go to school or play ice hockey. Give it your all! If you don’t manage to stand on your own two feet, your life will be as hard as ours. Yes, I’ll push myself hard. Good morning! Today is our second day. Let’s see what you learned yesterday. Can you still remember it all? Today’s your big chance to qualify for the national youth squad. Get it! Keep an eye on Deachen and on Tshering as well. What do you think, do we stand a chance? If they took all of us, we’d have so much fun together! And if not, we’ll protest! Come on… I need to drink something. Goal! I want nothing more than to be picked for the national youth squad. And just now, for the first time, I was able to get a proper idea of what it would like to be on the team. To relax, I love going to these hot springs with my friends. Then we’ll cook noodles. I’m scared about tomorrow’s decision. But they’ll take us for sure! You’ve all made huge progress compared to the first day. But of the 10 girls we’ve only selected three, who already show so much potential we want to send them to further training sessions for the national youth squad. These girls are: Lhamo The next is Deachen. And the third is Tshering. You three are allowed to take part in this year’s training of young players for the national team. Best of luck to all of you! My other friends didn’t make it this year. Lhamo and I have much more experience than they do. If they carry on training it’ll certainly work out for them next time. And we’ll help them. I’m really happy that Lhamo and I were chosen. I can hardly wait to continue my training and get a little bit better every day. One day, I’ll play for India in a foreign country. I imagine myself walking into a huge stadium and proudly singing the national anthem.

Deachen from Ladakh has a dream – to qualify for the youth squad of India’s national women’s ice hockey team. But because of the climate crisis, winters are getting shorter meaning there’s less time to train.

The 15-year-old Indian girl Deachen rubs her hands before pulling on large ice hockey gloves and picking up her hockey stick. She then squints up at the snow-capped Himalayan peaks. She should really be training on proper ice by now. But instead, she’s forced to practice with a tennis ball on tarmac. That is because the lakes on the high plateaus of Ladakh are not yet frozen over. This region is also feeling the effects of global warming: bodies of water are turning to ice later and winters are shorter. Because there are no ice rinks, this means there is less time to train. Ice hockey is the most popular winter sport in Ladakh, in the north of India.

India’s national women’s ice hockey team was founded in 2017. It is Deachen’s big dream to join it one day, to play professionally and travel the world. Luckily, it’ll soon be vacation time and she can leave her boarding school in the capital Leh and go home, to the mountain village of Chumathang. Once there, she will be able to get back on the ice and seize a major opportunity: the captain of the Indian national women’s team is coming to her village to scout for new talent for the youth squad. Will Deachen manage to qualify?

#documentary #dwdocumentary #icehockey
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