Ladakh is a high altitude desert lying between the Himalaya and the Karakoram, and people have lived and travelled here since prehistoric times. Rock carvings found across the region, showing ibex, hunters and symbols, record the presence of early communities over thousands of years. Early inhabitants are thought to have included Dard and Mon peoples, and later many settlers came from Tibet. Buddhism reached Ladakh early, spreading from Kashmir and later from Tibet, and ancient rock carvings such as the large standing Maitreya Buddha at Mulbekh show its long presence.
Around the 10th century, after the break up of the Tibetan empire, a prince of the old Tibetan royal line founded a kingdom in western Tibet, and Ladakh emerged as a kingdom known as Maryul under his descendants. Around the turn of the 11th century the great translator Rinchen Zangpo helped spread Buddhist learning in the western Himalaya, and many early temples are associated with him. The Alchi temple complex, with exquisite murals and wood carvings from around the 11th to 12th centuries, is one of the treasures of Ladakh. Lamayuru, among the oldest monasteries in the region, perches dramatically above a moonlike landscape.
In the 16th century the Namgyal dynasty came to power and ruled Ladakh for around three centuries. Its most celebrated king, Sengge Namgyal, reigned in the early 17th century and built the nine storey Leh Palace that still towers over the town. He was also a patron of Hemis Monastery, now famous for its summer festival. Other great monasteries such as Thiksey, Spituk, Diskit and Likir grew in importance. In the late 17th century Ladakh fought a war with Tibet, and with Mughal help the conflict ended with the Treaty of Tingmosgang in 1684, which set the terms of relations with Tibet.
For centuries Leh was a key trading hub on caravan routes linking Kashmir, Tibet, Central Asia and Punjab. Traders carried pashmina wool, salt, tea, silk and other goods across high passes, and the old town of Leh, with its narrow lanes and mud brick houses, grew around this commerce. In the 1830s the Dogra general Zorawar Singh, serving Gulab Singh of Jammu, conquered Ladakh. After 1846 it became part of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, and the Namgyal royal family moved to Stok Palace, which today houses a museum of royal heirlooms.
After independence in 1947, Ladakh remained a region of the state of Jammu and Kashmir. It was organised into the districts of Leh and Kargil, with Kargil district created in 1979. Autonomous Hill Development Councils were later set up for Leh in 1995 and Kargil in 2003 to give local communities a greater role in development. The region opened to foreign tourists in the 1970s, and travel has since become an important part of the local economy.
Under the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act of 2019, Ladakh was separated from Jammu and Kashmir and became a union territory without a legislature on 31 October 2019. Leh serves as the main administrative centre, with Kargil as the other key hub. Today travellers come for Ladakh's monasteries, palaces, high passes and lakes, and for a living Buddhist and Islamic culture shaped by centuries of trade and faith.
Photo: KennyOMG, CC BY-SA 4.0
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