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Ladakh: People, Religion &
Culture
The traveller from India
will look in vain for similarities between the land and people he has left
and those he encounters in Ladakh. 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 from Tibet, 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 around
Kargil, there is much in the people's appearance that suggests a mixed
origin. The exception to this generalizations 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 Ladakh, and there are ancient Buddhist rock engravings all over
the region, even in areas like Drass and the lower Suru Valley which today
are inhabited by an exclusively Muslim population. The divide between
Muslim, and Buddhist 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 in 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 penetration of the Shia sect spearheaded by
missionaries, its success was guaranteed by the early conversion of the
sub-rulers of Drass, Kargil and the Suru Valley. In these areas, mani walls
and chorten are placed by mosques, often small unpretentious buildings, or
Imambaras imposing structures in the Islamic style, surmounted by domes of
sheet metal that gleam cheerfully in the sun.
The demeanor 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 only work in the
house and field, but also do business and interact freely with men other
than 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 natural 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 literature of songs 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,
and some of the most exuberant and lyrical songs are said to be 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.
