Shimla, June 25,
In the cold desert of Himachal’s Spiti Valley, the 996 AD Tabo Monastery was never designed to survive rainfall. Its walls, crafted from local mud and stone, rely on the region’s long, dry winters and minimal precipitation to stand strong. For over a thousand years, nature was its most dependable ally. But now, as climate patterns break down and high-altitude deserts turn volatile, that protective alliance is falling apart.
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What once made Tabo resilient is now its weakness. Earthen plaster, wooden beams, and porous mud bricks that allowed breathability in the dry cold are now soaking in unseasonal moisture. Summer storms no longer pass gently — they bring flash floods, glacial surge, and weeks of humidity. Monks and conservationists are watching the monastery’s structural health deteriorate rapidly, with swelling walls, cracking beams, and water-logged chambers.
“The monastery was never built to battle moisture,” says Lama Sonam Kunga, a senior priest in a media statement. “Our architecture was in tune with our weather. But now the weather is no longer in tune with us.” They’ve reached out to the Archaeological Survey of India for urgent help — requesting retractable roofing and modern drainage, but their deeper concern goes beyond patchwork fixes.
Recent flash floods in the Lahaul-Spiti region — which cut off highways and left entire valleys stranded — only confirm what local residents are already experiencing: Spiti’s climate is no longer behaving like a cold desert. Scientists have noted rapid glacial melt, altered precipitation patterns, and extreme shifts in summer temperatures — all of which are reshaping the region’s delicate water cycle.
And when climate changes this fast, heritage architecture becomes the first casualty. Unlike concrete buildings, traditional Himalayan structures are deeply responsive to the natural environment. They don’t resist nature; they move with it. But the current climate crisis leaves them exposed, unarmored, and out of sync.
What’s happening to Tabo is not just an isolated case. It’s a warning for countless other ancient Himalayan structures that were shaped by climate wisdom, not industrial durability. From monasteries to temples, many such sites are now paying the price for a rapidly warming world. And while emergency steps by agencies like the ASI are essential, experts say this moment demands a long-term strategy that blends traditional restoration with climate adaptation — one that respects the spirit of the architecture but also addresses the new environmental reality.
In Tabo, preservation is no longer a matter of restoring walls — it’s about rebuilding the bond between place and environment. A thousand-year-old architectural legacy, once perfectly matched to its setting, is now being undone by a climate that no longer remembers the rules.
