Ladakh
Ladakh is the largest district of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, covering more than half the area of the state (of which it is the eastern part). Nevertheless Ladakh is one of the least populated districts in India. It is renowned for its remote mountain beauty and Tibetan Buddhist culture; it is sometimes called "Little Tibet". The capital is Leh. Recent protests by the people of Ladakh have called to make the Kashmiri district a new Indian union territory because of its difference from predominantly Sunni Islamic Kashmir.
History
Ladakh was once an independent Buddhist kingdom. A breakdown in relations with Tibet in the 17th century resulted in an attempted invasion by the Fifth Dalai Lama. Kashmiri help restored Ladakhi rule at a price - the building of a mosque in Leh and the conversion of the Ladakhi king to Islam. Kashmir later went on to annex Ladakh, ending its independence and in the long run making it part of British India. The kingdom's former land is now divided between India, Pakistan, and the Aksai Chin district of the People's Republic of China.Since the early 1960s the number of immigrants from Tibet (including Changpa nomads) have increased as they flee the occupation of their homeland by the Chinese. Today, Leh has some 3,500 refugees from Tibet. They hold no passports, only customs papers. Some Tibetan refugees in Ladakh claim dual Tibetan/Indian citizenship, although their Indian citizenship is unofficial.
Geography
Ladakh is the highest altitude plateau region in India (much of it being over 3,000 m), straddling the Himalayan and Karakoram mountain ranges and the upper Indus River valley.Historic Ladakh consists of a number of distinct areas (mainly under Indian rule), including the fairly populous main Indus valley, the more remote Zanskar (in the south) and Nubra valleys (to the north over Khardung La in the Ladakh mountain range, the highest motorable pass in the world at 5,602 m or 18,380 ft), the almost deserted Aksai Chin (under Chinese rule) and the predominantly Shi'ite Muslim Kargil and Suru Valley areas in the west (Kargil being the second most important town in Ladakh).
The Baltistan and Skardu area, under Pakistani rule and entirely Muslim, is included in what is geographically referred to as Ladakh. Before partition, Baltistan was one of the districts of Ladakh. Skardu was the winter capital of Ladakh while Leh was the summer capital. People of Baltistan and Ladakh speak the same language.
Demographics
Unlike the rest of Jammu and Kashmir which is mainly Islamic, a plurality of Ladakhis areTibetan Buddhist (50%), with most of the rest being Shia Muslims (45%). Local Christians and some settled Hindu and Sikh families make up one percent of the population. Most Buddhists follow the tantric form of Buddhism known as Vajrayana Buddhism. The population following Islam predominantly adhere to Shia form of Islam, principally among the related Balti. The people are of Tibetan descent with some Dardic (Indo-Aryan) admixture; the Balti are believed to have more Dardic ancestry than the Ladakhis. The Changpa nomads who live in the Rupshu plateau are pure Tibetans, and it was probably herders like them who first settled in Ladakh and Baltistan. Muslim Arghons, descandants of Kashmiri or Central Asian merchants and Ladakhi women mainly live in Leh.Approximately thirty Ladakhi families who are followers of Christianity. These local families are converted by Moravian missionaries in 1885. The Ladakhi Christians belong to the middle class in society. There are two churches, one in Leh and one in Shey.
People of Dard descent predominate in Drass and Dha-Hanu valleys. Dha-Hanu are known as Brokpa are followers of Tibetan Buddhism and have preserved much of their original traditions and customs. The Mons are descandants of earlier Indian settlers in Ladakh. They work as musicians, blacksmiths and carpenters. People in Drass are largely of Dard ancestry and follow Islam.
This is evidenced by the high number of Buddhist monasteries including Shey, Tikse, Hemis, Alchi, Stongdey and Lamayuru (each called locally a 'gompa' meaning 'monastery'). Ladakhis mostly speak a dialect of Tibetan referred to as Ladakhi, and there are some differences in language. The most obvious one to outsiders being the use of 'Jullay' instead of 'Tashi Delek' for 'hello'.
The Balti language, which is spoken mainly in Kargil, Nubra, Central Ladakh as well as Baltistan in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir is a sister dialect of Ladakhi.
Economy
With the Jammu and Kashmir crisis making the Kashmir valley a no-go area for tourists, the Indian Government encouraged a shift in trekking and other tourist activities to the relatively unaffected areas of Buddhist eastern Ladakh. Tourism thus became a major source of income for what previously was a subsistence, agricultural economy.Transportation
The main corridor for trade and commerce in the area has also shifted from the Zoji-La pass and Kargil route from Srinagar in the Kashmir Valley, to the high altitude Manali-Leh Highway from Himachal Pradesh. The latter is open only between July and September, when snow is cleared from the road. There is one airport, situated at Leh, from which there are multiple daily flights to Delhi on Jet Airways and Indian (Indian Airlines has been renamed as Indian), and weekly flights to Srinagar.From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
