Religion & Culture
The
traveller from India will look in vain for similarities between the land and
people he has left and those he encounters inLadakh. 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 fromTibet, 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 arond Kargil, there ismuch in the people's appearance that
suggests a mixed origin.
The exception to this generalizationis 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 Loadkah, and there are
ancient Buddhist rock engravings all over the ragion, even in areas like Dras
and the lower Suru Valley which today are inhabited by an exclusively Muslim
population.
The divide between Muslim, and Buddhis 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 im 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 penetrationof the Shia sect spearheaded
by missionaries, its success was guaranteed by the early conversion of the sub-rulers
of Dras, Kargil and the Suru Valley. In these areas, mani walls and chorten
are placed by mosques, oftern small unpretentious buildings, or Imambaras imposing
structures in the Islamic style, surmounted by domes of sheet metal that gleam
cheerfully in the sun.
The demeanour 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
noly work inthe house and field, but also do business and interact freely with
men other thatn 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 natureal 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 leterature
ofsongs 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,a nd some of the most exuberant and lyrical
songs are said tobe 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.
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