Ladakh cities · Cities in Ladakh
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Cities in Ladakh
Cities in Ladakh
Choglamsar - a village with a large Tibetan comunity, almost close enough to Leh to be a suburb.
Kargil - town with much of interest for travelers. A Budha statue erected at Mulbekh, another one at Sankoo are the ones worthy wathching. Kargil provides excellant sites for treking and mountaineering like the nun kun massif, also there is large scope for river rafting in Zanskar region op Kargil district. Kargil is known all over India for its rich apricot orchards, during summer the entire valley changes into beautiful orange colour. This region has very serene environment. For tourists, it is an important transit hub. It is also noteworthy to know that it is the only Muslim majority area and one of two districts of the Ladakh division in India.
Leh - a medium sized town, not many "sites", but very picturesque and makes an excellent base for exploring Ladakh - good guest houses and restaurants.
Turtuk - a remote village inhabited by ethnic Muslims on the 'line of control' between Pakistan and Tibet. Once a part of Baltistan, shared strong economic and cultural ties with Tibet.
Ladakh is unique in India.
Ladakh was an independent kingdom for nine centuries, but it was very strongly influenced by Tibet and the neighbouring Muslim lands. Linguistically Ladakhi is very closely related to Tibetan. Tibet has always been where Ladakhi Buddhists would go for higher religious education, which since the incorporation of Tibet into China has meant the Ladakhis have made the much shorter trip to the Tibetan monasteries in India. The architecture of Ladakh is almost identical to that of Tibet, both of residential buildings and of the monasteries. The class structure, or more precisely the lack of a sharply defined class structure, is common to Tibet and Ladakh, and is in sharp contrast to the rest of India. Related to this is the relatively high status, freedom and outspokenness of Buddhist women in Ladakh and Tibet.
Importantly, a set of cultural practices that keep the population from growing to be more than the land can support, and to prevent a farm from being divided up and thus being unable to support a family, is common to both cultures:
Monasteries: these would take large numbers of the monks and nuns and thus keep the population at a stable level.
Polyandry: a practice where one woman marries all the brothers of a family to prevent the family's land from being divided, was common in both Ladakh and Tibet until into the 20th century.
Primogeniture: a system where the inheritance after a man's death (primarily the land) would pass to his oldest son in order to keep farms large enough to support a family.
Khangbu: the little house to which the father and mother would retire once their eldest son married and took over the management of the farm, inheriting the main house along with it.
However, Tibet was far from the only influence on Ladakh. Where Tibet was largely closed off to outside influence, Ladakh was a nation where the caravan trade played an important role. Traders from the neighbouring Muslim lands (both Kashmir and East Turkistan, now the Xinjiang province of China) were a common sight in Leh's bazaar until the 20th century. The folk music is based on the styles of the Muslim parts of the Western Himalayas; likewise polo was imported from these lands and enjoys popularity to this day with Ladakhis regardless of faith.
Over the couple decades the relationship between Buddhists and Muslims in Ladakh has deteriorated. Possibly due to the complex roles of the communites as minorities relative to each other. Muslims are a minority in Leh, majority in J&K, minority in India; Buddhists a majority in Leh, minority in J&K to Muslims, in India to Hindus. Possibly due to the importation of identity politics from the rest of India. Whatever the reason, it has never erupted into the kind of violence seen elsewhere in India at times, but it still may take the sheen out of a place that seems remarkably idyllic, when a new friend says something that's hard not to hear as racist.
The Most Frequently Asked Travel Questions about Ladakh
Where To Stay & Best Hotels in Ladakh - updated May 2024
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Ladakh Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.