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For
close on 900 years from the middle of the 10th century, Ladakh was
an independent kingdom , its dynasties descending from the king
of old Tibet. Its political fortunes ebbed and flowed over the centuries,
and the kingdom, was at its greatest in the early 17th century under
the famous king Sengge Namgyal, whose rule extended across Spiti
and western Tibet up to the Mayumla beyond the sacred sites of Mount
Kailash and Lake Mansarovar.
And gradually, perhaps partly due to the fact that it was politically
stable, in contrast to the lawless tribes further west, Ladakh became
recognized as the best trade route between the Pubjab and Central
Asia. For centuries it was travered by caravans carrying textiles
and spices, raw silk and carpets, dyestuffs and narcotics. Heedless
of the land's rugged terrain and apparent remoteness, merchants
entrusted their goods to relays o fpony transporters who took about
two months to carry them from Amritsar to the Central Asian towns
of Yarkand and Knotan. On this long route, Leh was the half-way
house, and developed into a bustling entreport, it bazaars thronged
with merchants from far countries.
The famous pashm (better known as cashmere) also came down from
the high-altitude plateaux of eastern Ladakh and western Tibet where
it was produced, thorough Leh to Srinagar, where skilled artisans
transformed it from a matted oily mass of goat's underfleece into
shawls known the world over for their softness and warmth. Ironically,
it was this lucrative trade, that finally spelt the doom of the
independent kingdom. It attracted the covetous gaze of Gulab Singh,
the ruler of Jammu in the early 19th century, and in 1834, he sent
his general Zorawar Singh to invade Ladakh. Ther followed a decade
of war and turmoul, which ended with the emergence of the British
as the paramount power in north India. Ladakh, together with the
neighbouring province of Baltistan, was incorporated into the newly
created State of Jammu & Kashmir. Just over a century later,
this union was disturbed by the partition of India, Baltistan becoming
part of Pakistan, while Ladakh remained in India as part of the
State of Jammu & Kashmir.
For
close on 900 years from the middle of the 10th century, Ladakh was
an independent kingdom , its dynasties descending from the king
of old Tibet. Its political fortunes ebbed and flowed over the centuries,
and the kingdom, was at its greatest in the early 17th century under
the famous king Sengge Namgyal, whose rule extended across Spiti
and western Tibet up to the Mayumla beyond the sacred sites of Mount
Kailash and Lake Mansarovar. 
