Visit
the Amazing Destinations of All India Travel
- Rajasthan,
Kerala, Goa,
Delhi, Mumbai
for Adventure,
Cultural,
Wildlife, Religious,
Beaches & Rail
Tours. Find over 600 Travel Agents & Hotels Reservation Networks
for comfortable holidays of a lifetime in the Indian Sub-continent - India,
Nepal, Bhutan, Tibet & Sri Lanka.
The traveller from India will look in vain for similarities between
the land and people he has left and those he encountoers inLadakh.
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 fromTibet, 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 arond Kargil, there ismuch in the people's appearance that suggests
a mixed origin.
The exception to this generalizationis the Arghons, a community
of Muslims in Leh, the descendants of marriages between local women
and Kashmiri or Central Asian merchants.
Buddhism reached Tibet from India via Loadkah, and there are ancient
Buddhist rock engravings all over the ragion, even in areas like
Dras and the lower Suru Valley which today are inhabited by an exclusively
Muslim population. The divide between Muslim, and Buddhis Ladakh
passes through Mulbekh (on the Kargil-Leh road) and between the
villages of Parkachick and Rangdum in the Suru Valley, though there
are pockets of Muslim population further east, in Padum (Zanskar),
in Nubra Valley and in and around Leh.
The approach to Buddhist village is invariable marked by mani walls
which are long chest-high structures faced with engraved stones
bearing the mantrra im mane padme hum and by chorten, commemorative
cairns, like stone pepper-pots. Many villagers 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 solitary lama.
Islam too came from the west. A peaceful penetrationof the Shia
sect spearheaded by missionaries, its success was guaranteed by
the early conversion of the sub-rulers of Dras, Kargil and the Suru
Valley. In these areas, mani walls and chorten are placed by mosques,
oftern small unpretentious buildings, or Imambaras imposing structures
in the Islamic style, surmounted by domes of sheet metal that gleam
cheerfully in the sun.
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 noly work inthe house and field, but also do
business and interact freely with men other thatn their own relations.
In Kargil and its adjoining regions on the other hand, it is only
in the last few years that women are emerging from semi-seclusion
and taking jobs other than traditional ones like farming and house
-keeping. The natureal 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.
Of the secular culture, the most important element is the rich oral
leterature ofsongs and poems for every occasion, as well as local
versions of the Kesar Saga, the Tibetan national epic. Buddhists
and Muslims. In fact,the most highly developed versions of the Kesar
Saga,a nd some of the most exuberant and lyrical songs are said
tobe found in Shakar-Chigtan, an area of the western Kargil district
exclusively inhabited by Muslims, unfortunately not freely open
to tourists yet.
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
The traveller from India will look in vain for similarities between
the land and people he has left and those he encountoers inLadakh.
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
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 noly work inthe house and field, but also do
business and interact freely with men other thatn their own relations.
