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Ladakh

Ladakh is a land like no other. Bounded by two of the world's mightiest mountain ranges, the Great Himalayas and the Karakoram, it lies athwart two other, the Ladakh range and the Zanskar range.

In geological terms, this is a young land, formed only a few million years ago by the buckling and folding of the earth's crust as the Indian sub-continent pushed with irresistible force against the immovable mass of Asia. Its basic contours, uplifted by these unimaginable tectonic movements, have been modified over the millennia by the opposite process of erosion, sculpted into the form one sees today by wind and water.

A Virtually Rainless Area
Today, a high -altitude desert, sheltered from the rain-bearing clouds of the Indian monsoon by the barrier of the Great Himalayas, Ladakh was once covered by an extensive lake system, the vestiges of which still exist on its south -east plateaux of Rupshu and Chushul - in drainage basins with evocative names like Tso-moriri, Tsokar, and grandest of all, Pangong-tso. Occasionally, some stray monsoon clouds do find their way over the Himalaya, and lately this seems to be happening with increasing frequency. But the main source of water remains the winter snowfall.

Drass (also spelt as Dras), Zanskar and the Suru Valley on the Himalaya's northern flank receive heavy snow in winter; this feeds the glaciers whose melt water, carried down by streams, irrigates the fields in summer. For the rest of the region, the snow on the peaks is virtually the only source of water. As the crops grow, the villagers pray not for rain, but for sun to melt the glaciers and liberate their water.

Usually their prayers are answered, for the skies are clear and the sun shines for over 300 days in the year. Ladakh lies at altitudes ranging from about 9,000 feet (2,750m) at Kargil to 25,170 feet (7,672m) at Saser Kangri in the Karakoram. Thus summer temperatures rarely exceed about 270 C in the shade, while in winter they may plummet to -200 C even in Leh. Surprisingly, though, the thin air makes the heat of the sun even more intense than at lower altitudes; it is said that only in Ladakh can a man sitting in the sun with his feet in the shade suffer from sunstroke and frostbite at the same time!

Central Ladakh
LadakhIts mural, dating from the 11th and 12th centuries, pre-date the Tibetan style of painting that is present are reminiscent of the paintings of the far off Ajanta Caves and are presumed to be almost sole survivors of the Buddhist style current in Kashmir during the first millennium AD, along with some in Phugtal Gompa in Zanskar, and Tabo in Spiti

Northern Ladakh

Kargil
Kargil, the second town of Ladakh, is situated on the Suru River just short of its confluence with the Dras-shingo. Almost equidistant, at a little over 200-km from Leh, Srinagar, Padum in Zanskar and Skardu, the capital of Baltistan, it was in the old days the centre of a network of routes joining these places. After partition, Skardu went into Pakistan, but Kargil remains the main staging-point between Srinagar and Leh, and the Gateway to the Suru valley and Zanskar.

Suru Valley
The Suru valley, a greatly underrated part of Ladakh, runs for about 140-km from Kargil up to the base of the Penzi-la pass into Zanskar. Although immobilized in winter by heavy snowfall, its fields, watered by streams fro the surrounding mountains, produce rich crops of wheat and barely. Traditionally, it has been an area surplus in foodgrains. Irrigation water is plentiful enough to allow the plantation of thick stands of willow and poplar, giving the area lushness rare in Ladakh.

About halfway along its length, the river loops its way past a huge mound of alluvium, the last gasp of the Zanskar range, to carry on, past the glaciers of the Nun-kun massif to Rangdum, a Gompa on a hillock overlooking a wide marshy plain. The lower portion of the valley, its immediate charms apart, offers spectacular views of Nun-Kun and its attendant peaks. Expeditions to it mostly take off from Panikhar, the village just short of the valley's right-angled turn, which is also the base for long treks in the direction of Kashmir and Kishtwar. Other trekking bases are Sanku, further down the valley, and Rangdum.

Zanskar
Two rivers, flowing towards each other along the northern flank of the Great Himalayas, meet in the broad plain of Padum. They become the Zanskar River, which flows off northwards through a gorge in the Zanskar range, to meet the Indus at Nimo. This T-Shaped complex of valleys is Zanskar, opened to motor traffic only in 1980 when a road was built via the Suru Valley and Rangdum and over the Penzi-la.

A Trekkers Paradise
Virtually untouched by the winds of change and modernization till then, Zanskar is now a favourite destination for trekkers. Padum is the centre for hard but rewarding treks to Manali via the Shingo-la (16,732 feet/5,100m); Kishtwar via the Umasi-la (17,828 feet/5,434m); and Lamayuru and Leh via difficult routes through the Zanskar range. Zanskar is also known as a land of religion and has the greatest concentration of Gompas in Ladakh, outside the Indus Valley. The important ones are Sani, Karsha and Stongde in the central plain, Bardan and Phugtal just off the Padum-Manali trail, and the small hermitage of Dzonkhul on the way to the Umasi-la.

Arts & Crafts
There is little tradition of artistic craftsmanship in Ladakh, most luxury articles in the past having been obtained through imports. The exception is the village of Chilling, about 19-km up the Zanskar River from Nimo. Here, a community of metal workers, said to be the descendants of artisans brought from Nepal in the mid-17th century to build one of the gigantic Buddha - images at Shey, carry on their hereditary vocation. Working in silver, brass and copper, they produce exquisite items for domestic and religious use: Tea and Chang pots, teacup-stands and lids, Hookah-bases, ladles and bowls and cooking pots they need for everyday use.

Weaving
'Pattu', the rough, war, woollen material used for clothing is made from locally produced wool, spun by women on drop-spindle, and woven by semi-professional weavers on portable looms set up in the winter sunshine, or under the shade of a tree in summer. Baskets, for the transport of any kind of burden-manufacture for the fields, fresh vegetables, even babies-are woven out of willow twigs, or a particular variety of grass.

Woodwork is confined largely to the production of pillars and carved lintels for the houses, and the low carved tables that are a feature of every Ladakhi living room. Many such items, together with others recently introduced as part of the development process, are available in the District Hnadicrafts Centre at Leh, which exists to train local people as well as to market their products.

There one can find, in addition to traditional objects, a few special items like Pashmina shawls- rough compared with those produced in Srinagar, but soft and warm as only pure Pashmina can be: and carpets in designs and techniques borrowed from Tibet. Similar carpets are also to be had at the Tibetan Refugee Centre at Choglamsar.

Thangka Paintings
The Handicrafts Centre also has a department of Thanka painting. These icons on cloth are executed in accordance with strict guidelines handed down from past generations. In the same tradition are the mural paintings in the Gompas, where semi-professionals, both monks and laymen about to keep the walls decorated with images symbolizing the various aspects of the Buddhist Way. The skill of building religious statues is also not extinct. The gigantic representation of Maitreya was installed in Thise Gompa as recently as the early 1980s.

New Areas
Ladakh ViewEven Rupshu's bare hills support a sparse population of wildlife, and the animal most likely to be spotted is the Kyang, the wild Ass of the Ladakh and Tibet plateaux. More plentiful are Marmots (ubiquitous on mountain slopes all over Ladakh), Hares, and an unusual tail-less rat. The lakes are breeding-grounds for numerous species of birds. Chief among them are the bareheaded Goose, found in great numbers on the Tso-moriri, the great crested grebe, the Brahmini Duck (Ruddy Sheldrake) and the brown-headed Gull.

Ladakh Specifics

Chortens And Mani Walls
Among the more visible expressions of Buddhism in Ladakh are the chess pawn shaped Chortens at the entrance to villages and monasteries. These are the Tibetan equivalent of the Indian Stupa- large hemispherical burial mounds cum devotional objects, prominent in Buddhist ritual since the 3rd century BC.

About Chortens
Made of mud, stone and now also concrete, many Chortens were erected as acts of piety by Ladakhi nobles, and like their southern cousins, they are imbued with mystical powers and symbolic significance: the tall tapering spire, normally divided into thirteen sections, represents the soul's progression towards nirvana, while the sun cradled by the crescent moon at the top stands for the unity of opposites, and the oneness of existence and the universe. Some contain sacred manuscripts that, like the chortens, wither and decay in time, illustrating the central Buddhist doctrine of impermanence. Those enshrined in monasteries, however, generally made of solid silver and encrusted with semi precious stones, contain the ashes or relics of revered 'Rinpoches' (incarnate Lamas).

Chortens in Ladakh
Always pass a Chorten in a clockwise direction: the ritual of circumambulation mimics the passage of the planets through the heavens, and is believed to ward off evil spirits. The largest array is to be found in the desert east of Shey, the former capital, but look out for the giant, brightly painted specimen between the bus station and Leh bazaar whose red spire stands out against the snowy Stok Kangri mountains to the south.

The Mani Wall
A short way downhill from the big Chorten, near the radio station, stands an even more monumental symbol of devotion. The 500-metre Mani Wall, erected by King Deldan Namgyal in 1635, is one of several at important religious sites around Ladakh. Ranging from a couple of metres to over a kilometre in length, the walls are made of hundreds of thousands of stones, each inscribed with prayers or sacred mantras - usually the invocation Om Mani Padme Hum: "Hail to the Jewel in the Lotus". It goes without saying that such stones should never be removed.

Wedding Ceremonies
A visitor to Ladakh rarely has a chance to see a Buddhist wedding performance according to the old customs and ceremonies. Today too much foreign influence is likely to have crept in; European clothing is slowly replacing the traditional dress. The celebration begins in the morning at the house of the bride. The all male party celebrated with Chang, which, according to custom, one must take in three consecutive draughts.

As a special sign the host improved the 'Chang' by adding butter. A celebration meal is served in the afternoon, but again only men partook. The bride remains in her mother's kitchen, symbolically indicating where her place is! Clothed in a wedding gown with a silver embroidered cape, decorated with old family jewellery, the bride is overwhelmed with lucky white ribbons and given gifts of money by her relatives and friends. While the men sing and the mother laments, the bride then goes to the family of the bridegroom, where she is met, in front of the house, by Lamas.

The Celebrations
Now the celebration proper begins. In a long ceremony, in which the bride must first of all refuse the food which is offered to her, the bride is led from her father or a friend of the family, to her husband, with whom she then symbolically partakes of a meal. She is then shown the house, with particular emphasis on the kitchen. By sunrise the ceremony is concluded, but not the celebration, which is a social occasion for the families with musicians, food and much, much Chang.

Funeral Ceremonies
Near to the palaces at Stok, Shey and Leh one may notice a large number of Chortens, the old 'pleasure gardens' of the kings of Ladakh. If one goes into the side valley, to the north east of Leh, on whose eastern slopes the road to the Nubra valley begins, one may find a Lare stone where a curious funeral practice was once conducted. The bodies of the dead were hacked to pieces and ground up with stones then left to be devoured by vultures. This practice was also followed in Tibet and is still followed in the Mustang region of Nepal.

Today the site of dismemberment is used for cremations. After a ceremony in the house of the dead person the corpse is tied up in a covered Sedan chair. Accompanied by Lamas the procession makes its way into the side valley near Leh. A few hundred metres northwest of the Chortens the procession halts and the chair is placed in a walled oven. This is really only a vertical tube with fire hole underneath. The fire is started with many prayers and during the long ceremony oil is frequently thrown into the oven until the cremation is complete. The ashes are scattered into a holy river or in the case of a person of high standing, placed in a Chorten.

Beacon Highway
The beacon highway leads from Leh into the Nubra valley over a pass at 5,606 metres - making it probably the highest road in the world. 'You can have dialogue with god' according to the road builder's sign! Only in September and October is the road open, at other times ice covers the road on the northern side of the Nubra valley. For foreigners the road is closed year round since the Nubra valley is in the restricted area and can only be visited with special permission.

Choglamsar
Choglamsar is the main training place for Buddhist monks in Ladakh. Since the Chinese invasion of Tibet the school of Buddhist philosophy school, on the right hand side of the road from Leh to Hemis, has become an important centre for the study of Tibetan literature and history and of Buddhist philosophy in its pure form. Many westerners, interested in Buddhist learning and meditation, have also studied here. Choglamsar has an extensive syllabus and its library is worth seeing, even for the casual visitor. In 1977 the old bridge at Sonam Ling was replaced with a new one able to take heavy vehicles. There are Mani stones in the village of Palam, which has a mixed Buddhist and Muslim population. The Hemis Stangna-Palam road is very rough and there are some river crossings to be made but there is a regular bus connection.


The People
People & Their Life
The traveller from India will look in vain for similarities between the land and people he has left and those he encounters in Ladakh. The faces and physique of the Ladakhis, and the clothes they wear, are more akin to those of Tibet and Central Asia than of India. The original population may have been Dards, an Indo- Aryan race from down the Indus.

But immigration from Tibet, perhaps a millennium or so ago, largely overwhelmed the culture of the "Dards" and obliterated their racial characteristics. In eastern and central Ladakh, today's population seems to be mostly of Tibetan origin. Further west, in and around Kargil, there is much in the people's appearance that suggests a mixed origin.

In fact, entire Baltistan (the districts of Skardu, Ganche in POK and Kargil in India) is a heterogeneous mixture of various ethnic groups such as Tibetan, Central Asian, Mongolian and Indo-Iranian. It is believed that the dominant community of those times, the Tibetans intermingled with other ethnic groups thereby giving rise to a new community altogether - known as the Arghons.

Those who have made careful assessment of the local population indicate that the Arghons today constitute more than half of it whereas the Tibetans are almost 35 % of the population. Rest of the population is formed of Mons, Tatars, Indo-Iranians, Dards and some Arab families.

Majority of the people speak Balti dialect with as much as 93% of people here claiming it tobe their mother tongue. The Balti people live in an area that is highly important in terms of its geo-strategic location. The trade routes that once passed through it were the economic lifeline of the people living here.

Situated just south to the Himalayan peak K2, the erstwhile region of Baltistan (called Baltiyul in the Balti language) was located towards north of Kashmir. This region also borders the Chinese province of Xinjiang. Today the region stands divided between India and Pakistan. The districts of Skardu and Ganche are located in the Pakistan occupied Kashmir, though India has never given up its claim over these areas. The district of Kargil is the Indian part of Baltistan and is located in the northern most state of India, Jammu and Kashmir.

Influence Of Buddhism
Buddhism reached Tibet from India via Ladakh, and there are ancient Buddhist frock engravings allover the region, even in areas like Drass and the lower Suru valley which today re-inhabited by an exclusively Muslim population. The divide between Muslim and Buddhist Ladakh passes through Mulbekh (on the Kargil-Leh Road) and between the villages of Parkachik and Randum in the Suru Valley, though there are pockets of Muslim population further east, in Padum (Zanskar), in Nura Valley and in and around Keg.

The approach to a Buddhist Village is invariably marked by 'Mani' walls, which are ling chest-high structures faced with engraved stones bearing the Mantra "Om Mane Padme Hum" and by 'Chorten', commemorative cairns, like stone pepper-posts. Many villages are crowned with a 'Gompa' or monastery, which may be anything from an imposing complex of temples, prayer halls and monks' dwellings, to a tiny hermitage housing a single image and home to a solitary Lama.

The Muslim Inhabitants
Islam too came from the west. A peaceful penetration of the 'Shia' sect spearheaded by missionaries, its success was guaranteed by the early conversion of the Sub-rulers of Drass, Kargil and the Suru Valley. In these areas, 'Mani' walls and Chorten are replaced by mosques often-small unpretentious buildings, or 'Imambaras' imposing structures in the Islamic style, surmounted by domes of sheet metal that gleam cheerfully in the sun.

Status Of Women In Ladakh
The demeanour of the people is affected by their religion, especially among the women. Among the Buddhists, as also the Muslims of the Leh area, women not only work in the house and field, but also do business and interact freely with men other than their own relations. In Kargil and its adjoining regions on the other hand, it is only in the last few years that women are merging from semi-seclusion and taking jobs other than traditional ones like farming and house-keeping.

Traditional Rituals & Leisure Activities
The natural joie-de-vivre of the Ladakhis is given free rein by the ancient traditions of the region. Monastic and other religious festivals, many of which fall in winter, provide the excuse for convivial gatherings. Summer pastimes all over the region are archery and polo. Among the Buddhists, these often develop into open-air parties accompanied by dance and song, at which 'Chang', the local brew made from fermented barley, flows freely.

Religious Harmony
Of the secular culture, the most important element is the rich oral literature of songs and poems for every occasions, as well as local versions of the "Kesar Saga", the Tibetan national epic. This literature is common to both Buddhists and Muslims. In fact, the most highly developed versions of the Kesar saga, and some of the most exuberant and lyrical songs are said to be found in Shakar-Chigtan an area of the western Kargil district exclusively inhabited by Muslims, unfortunately not freely open to tourists yet.

Ceremonies
Ceremonial and public events are accompanied by the characteristic music of 'Surna' and 'Daman' (Oboe and drum), originally introduced into Ladakh from Muslim Baltistan, but now played only by Buddhist musicians known as "Mons". When a child is born the family usually holds a festival for their relatives, neighbours and friends after the first 15 days, at age one month and after a year. All are invited to come to the house and are given 'Tsampa', butter and sugar, along with tea to eat and drink all day.

Wedding Process & Celebrations
When a marriage occurs festivities again continue all day with musicians and dancing. The first day is spent in feasting at the bride's house, the second at the groom's place. When the daughter of the family marries she goes to live in the house of her husband's partner. Boys are usually married or promised for marriage at about 16, girls at about 12. To make a proposal a relative of the boy goes to the house of the girl and gives a ring together with presents of butter, tea and 'Chang'. If the gifts are accepted then the marriage follows some months later.

The boy offers a necklace and clothes to the girl. The parents of the girl give the couple clothes, animals and land if they are rich. These gifts are known as a "Raqtqaq" or dowry. When the father of the family dies his place is taken by the eldest brother. The other brothers must obey the eldest brother. All inheritance of the family goes to the eldest brother and then to the next brother when he dies.

If the family consists of all girls, then the father will bring the husband of the eldest daughter into the house and all land stays in the daughter's name and passes to her first son. Both sets of parents must accept the proposal of the boy for the girl. Usually the marriage is set by both sets of parents, who will choose a suitable partner for their child on the basis of manner, health and ability to earn income and look after a house.