“The unrivaled beauty in the depths of the Himalayas” needs to find the place that best represents Tibet outside of Tibet, and here is the answer in our minds. A world isolated by white snow, far away from the hustle and bustle of the Himalayan deep valley, a group of isolated Tibetans, maintaining the oldest Tibetan traditions, this is Ladakh.
400 years ago, Dasang Repa wrote a book called “Journey to Shambhala”. The Shambhala he described is Ladakh, which is now located in Indian-administered Kashmir. The JHELUM River, a tributary of the upper source of the Indus River, cuts a narrow and long closed valley between the Karakoram Mountains and the Himalayas. It is an independent place. Regardless of climate, landscape, customs, religious beliefs, language, etc., they all belong to the scope of traditional Tibetan civilization. Let’s appreciate the beauty of Ladakh
Ladakh is one of the most rugged and wild mountainous regions in the world. The altitude is between 3000-7000 meters, most of which are sparsely populated highlands. The area is 45,110 square kilometers. It is the traditional residential area of Tibetans, and traditionally also includes Baltistan controlled by Pakistan today.
This is a world isolated by snow, because it is “snow-sealed” for more than half of the year, and the opening time for tourism is from mid-June to mid-October every year. In winter, the temperature on the Himalaya plateau reaches minus 40. The road to the provincial capital Leh was buried under several feet of thick snow.
The only airport is in the provincial capital, Leh, which often grounds planes due to bad weather even in summer, let alone winter. The extremely cold temperature on the plateau is also daunting. Until the ice and snow melted in the summer of the following year, people once again flocked to this small Tibetan plateau to spy on her beauty left behind.
The capital, Leh, is 3,500 meters above sea level and was the capital of the ancient dynasty of Ladakh. Looking down from a height, you can find that this is a small city built on a flat land in a river valley. The roads in the city are complicated and scattered. Traditional Tibetan houses are randomly spread out on both sides of the road, just like a miniature version of the Lhasa Valley. .
Ladakh has a population of about 260,000, mainly Tibetans and Aryans who speak Indo-Iranian languages. Stone carvings in this area indicate that humans lived in this area during the Neolithic Age. The earliest inhabitants of Ladakh were Aryans. About 80% of the population believes in Tibetan Buddhism, which is the largest Buddhist area in India. More importantly, since Buddhism was introduced into Ladakh, it has not been interrupted. Ladakhs who have preserved a rich Himalayan clothing culture
In the seventh century A.D., Songtsan Gampo, king of Tubo, expanded westward and conquered the Zhang Zhung Kingdom in 645. He appointed his trusted nobles as the general manager of Zhang Zhung, who was in charge of Ali and Ladakh. In 843 AD, Bodhidharma, the last Zanpu (king) of the Tubo Kingdom, was killed by the monk Lalong Beijiduoji for launching a campaign to destroy Buddhism. Before long, the dynasty collapsed. Langdama’s great-grandson Jidnimagun led his men to flee to the Ngari area, married the daughter of the local headman, and established the Guge Dynasty.
At this time, a large number of Tibetans poured into the Ladakh area, and Tibetanization followed. At that time, the Turkic forces who had newly converted to Islam invaded India, and the ancient Buddhist temples such as the Nalanda Temple and Chaoyan Temple in North India were all destroyed by the Muslim invading army. Therefore, a large number of Indian Buddhist scholars and monks fled to Tibet and Ladakh to spread Buddhism. Dharma, known as the “post-expansion period” of Tibetan Buddhism in history.
In 1633, because the king of Guge tried to use Western missionaries to offset the influence of the monks, the monks rebelled in the Guge Kingdom, and the king took the opportunity to collude with the Ladakh army to invade. In 1635, the Ladakh army besieged the capital of Guge and surrendered without a fight. The king and members of the royal family were all killed, and the Guge Kingdom perished. Ladakh annexed the territories of the Guge Dynasty… After that, King Bagan reunified Ladakh and established the “Nanjia Dynasty”. Since then, the national power has gradually strengthened. This regional dynasty has continued to this day.
In 1975, the Indian government began to open the road to Ladakh. In 1979, aircraft began to communicate with the outside world. Only then can tourists appreciate the mysterious and unique scenery here, and some people call it “the last Shangri-La in the world”. Therefore, even though the distance is far away, there are still an endless stream of tourists.
The Aji Temple in Ladakh is a very typical Tibetan Buddhist monastery in the early stage of Tibet’s post-Hong Kong period. Its murals and sculptures play an extremely important role in the history of Buddhist art in western Tibet.
Most of the murals in Kashmiri style can be seen in the Aki Temple. The Kashmiri painting style refers to a Buddhist art style formed in the Bamiyan area of Afghanistan by combining the Gandhara style that emerged during the Guishan Dynasty in the first 300 AD and the Persian art tradition.
Phugtal is the most inaccessible Tibetan Buddhist temple in the world. It is one of the most remote temples in Ladakh and can only be reached by foot from the village of Purne in Zanskar. Looking at the Phugtal Temple from a distance, it looks like a beehive extending from a huge cave on the cliff, against the blue sky, and the emerald-like bright and transparent river, showing the detached beauty that does not belong to the world.
Because there is no industrial pollution in Ladakh, their sky and lake are as blue as the turquoise they wear. The snow-capped mountains reflect the clear green lake, and the landscape of the oasis in the valley is completely different from the wilderness and high mountains around which there is no grass.
Most people in Ladakh are mainly engaged in farming, and agricultural products are limited to a few drought- and cold-tolerant crops, such as barley, wheat and a few crops. Due to the barren local soil, in order to solve the problem of farming labor, they used dairy cows and yaks to breed a new breed of cattle called “DZOS” (De Zuo) in the local language.
“DZOS” De Zuo Niu De Zuo Niu is born with hard work and is an indispensable working partner in the life of Ladakh people. As for the residents in remote mountainous areas, roasted barley or buckwheat flour (TSAMPA) is the staple food, and green salty tea mixed with cream is their daily drink.
Women in Ladakh can marry several men at the same time, but only limited to the husband’s brothers. Ladakh people are like Tibetans. The excrement of cows and horses is picked up from the field, adjusted into big cakes with both hands, pasted on the courtyard wall to dry, and stored for winter fuel and cooking. food or heating.
Polo has been popular in Ladakh for thousands of years. Although there are different theories about the origin of polo, there are four theories: Persian origin, Tibet origin, Central Plains origin and Northwest nomadic origin. But no matter how you look at it, this sport has a history of at least a thousand years in Ladakh. Every Ladakh festival, Leh will hold a grand polo match.
Ladakh is still undelimited by China, India, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. On an area of 100,000 square kilometers, Ladakh is the most remote corner of the earth and the last paradise. Because the four countries are undelimited, the structure that makes Ladakh so fragile may be destroyed at any time.
Although the residents of the Ladakh valley area are extremely poor in material conditions, they are a group of cheerful and happy Buddhists. When they greet you in the local dialect “JULEY”, their true feelings and kind nature are immediately revealed. In their spare time, the local residents like to dance and practice archery.
Perhaps, happiness really has nothing to do with rich or poor, but only with the heart. May this purity hidden in the Himalayas never be disturbed.
Best wishes to our distant Tibetan compatriots.
