Page 16 - English Expedition Class 6

moment of irritation. But in the very next instant, he saw a group of people running towards Tashi’s
house shouting, ‘Shan! Shan!’ Rigzin’s heart skipped a beat. ‘A shan? In Tashi’s house? Impossible!’
he thought. In a second he was up on his feet and running in the same direction. As he neared the
house, he realized that something was amiss.
A big crowd had gathered in front of the lhas of Tashi’s house. Some people were standing on
the roof of the lhas. Many of them held willow sticks in their hands and there seemed to be a great
commotion.
Now, you may wonder what a lhas and a shan are. Lhas is the Ladakhi word for an enclosure 7
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where livestock like sheep, goats, cows and yaks are kept. While houses in Ladakh have a lhas for
their domestic animals, many villages also have community-owned ones built a certain distance
away from the village. Used in the summer months, these enclosures are located in the pasture
lands high up in the mountains. Villagers take turns to stay near the lhas to look aft er the livestock.
A shan, on the other hand, is a snow leopard!
Tashi’s wife, Chorol, had woken up in the morning as usual. But as she went up to the roof
to gather fi rewood to light the stove, she heard a low, growling sound. Running to the lhas, she

7 enclosure: an area surrounded by a barrier 8 livestock: horses, cattle, sheep and other useful
animals kept or raised on a farm
6