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An overview of
Leh town
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(For
large view click on image)
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Area: 97,000
sq kms out of which nearly 38,000 sq. kms are under Chinese Occupation
since 1962.
Population: Approx.
2.40 lakh in the 2 districts of Leh & Kargil.
Languages: Ladakhi
including Balti / Purgi, Shina or Dardic, Urdu / Hindi.
Ethnic
composition: Mongoloid/Tibetan, Dardic and assorted Indo-Aryan
elements.
Altitude:
Leh 3505 m, Kargil 2750 m
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Temperature:
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Maximum
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Minimum |
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Summer
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25oC
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8oC
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Winter
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(-)
5oC
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(-)
20oC
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The
Ladakh mountainscape
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Rain-fall
: 15cm, 6" (annual average)
Clothing
:Cotton & light woollens in summer and heavy woollens including
down-filled wind proof upper garments in winter.
Geographical
Introduction
Ladakh is a land abounding in awesome physical features, set in an enormous
and spectacular environment. Bounded by two of the world's mightiest
mountain ranges, the Karakoram in the north and the Great Himalaya in
the south, it is traversed by two other parallel chains, the Ladakh
Range and the Zanskar Range.
In geological
terms, this is a young land, formed a few million years ago. Its basic
contours, uplifted by tectonic movements, have been modified over the
millennia by the process of erosion due to wind and water, sculpted
into the form that we see today.
Today a
high-altitude desert, shelter ed
from the rain-bearing clouds of the Indian monsoon by the barrier of
the Great Himalaya, 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 the drainage basins or lakes of Tso-moriri, Tso-kar
and Pangong-tso. But the main source of water is winter snowfall.
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Lake below Shey
Palace
(For
large view click on image)
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Dras, Zanskar
and the Suru Valley on the Himalaya's northern flanks receive heavy
snow in winter, this feeds the glaciers from which 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.
Ladakh lies
at altitudes ranging from about 9,000 ft (2,750 m) at Kargil
to 25,170 ft (7,672m) at Saser Kangri, in the Karakoram
Range. Summer temperatures rarely exceed 27C in the shade, while in
winter they may at times plummet to minus 20C 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!
Historical
Background
For nearly
900 years, from the middle of the 10th
century, Ladakh was an independent kingdom, its ruling dynasties descending
from the kings of old Tibet. The kingdom attained its greatest geographical
extent and glory in the early 17th century under the famous king Singge
Namgyal, whose domain extended across Spiti and western Tibet right
up to the Mayum-la, beyond the sacred sites of Mount Kailash and Lake
Mansarovar.
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Leh
Palace
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Gradually,
perhaps partly due to the fact that it was politically stable, Ladakh
became recognized as the best trade route between the Punjab and Central
Asia. For centuries it was traversed by caravans carrying textiles,
spices, raw silk, carpets, dyestuffs, narcotics, etc. Heedless of the
land’s rugged terrain and apparent remoteness, merchants entrusted their
goods to relays of pony transporters who took about two months to carry
them from Amritsar to the Central Asian towns of Yarkand and Khotan.
On this long route, Leh was the midway stop, and developed into a bustling
entrepot, its bazars thronged with merchants from distant countries.
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Shey
Palace, the old capital of Ladakh
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The famous
pashmina (better known as cashmere) also came down from
the high-altitude plateaux of eastern Ladakh and western Tibet, through
Leh, to Srinagar, where skilled artisans transformed it 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 attention of Gulab Singh,
the ruler of Jammu in the early 19th century, who sent his general Zorawar
Singh to invade Ladakh in 1834 AD. There followed a decade of
war and turmoil, 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, as a result of which
Baltistan became part of Pakistan, while Ladakh remained in India as
part of the State of Jammu & Kashmir.
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