Tour Experiences
Testimonials & References
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Dear Sanjeev,
My friend I wanted to take a moment and write to
thank you for a wonderful and very informative trip
for myself and the group of people that came with me
to India recently. It was a very inspiring
experience. Your knowledge is incredible along with
the high level of organization that you orchestrated
for the 16 day journey
that we all enjoyed. The experiences were heightened
by the personal sharing that you did with each of us
and collectively as a group....
(Dr. Steven L.
Hairfield Ph.D - USA)
More on Ladakh Tourism & Tour
Packages........ |
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Group Tours Departures......... |
About Ladakh
(History - Monasteries
- Monks -
Buddhism - Culture - Ladakhi Tea)
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Ladakh can still be described as an oasis of Tibetan
Buddhist culture even though its social and
religious structures are changing under the pressure
of modernity. Ladakh is also the last refuge for
Buddhism in its Tibetan form and it is still
practiced here in its purest form. Following the
strict restriction of free religious expression and
practice by the Chinese in Tibet and many of the
monastery they were broken up and scattered, many
monks and priests fled not only to India but also to
Ladakh which offered them new homes in its several
monasteries.
The four great religious schools of Tibetan Buddhism
are still represented in Ladakh, that offer their
teachings in harmonious co-exis-tence with each
other: The “unreformed” Red Hat school of the
Nyingmapa which was founded in the 8th century. C.E.
by the great teacher Padmasambhava, the “
half-reformed” Red Hat Order of the in the
monasteries of Lamayuru, phiyang, Wanla, Hemis,
Bardan, and Sani. The Sakyapa School (Matho
Monastery) and the Yellow Hat Gelugpa Order (the
monasteries of Spituk, Likir, Rangdun, etc.) that
arose as the “School of the honorable” in the wake
of a Reformation carried out by Tsongkhapa in the
14th Century. Together with the Kargyupa it is the
most important and most widespread order. Its
spiritual head is the Dalai Lama. |
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History of Ladakh |
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The history of Ladakh’s settlement can be traced to
the 5th century B.C.E. Burial finds and relief
sculptures on cliffs bear witness to the early
presence of Indo-Aryan tribes in this region; Dards,
Balti and Mon. Together with migrants of Tibe-tan
Mongolian descent they constitute a mixed population
that speaks a Sino-Tibetan dialet. The area was a
tributary of the Tibetan empire which was founded in
the 7th century C.E.In 930 C.E. the Tibetan Yarklun Dynasty was
established in Ladakh, which reigned with many ups
and downs until 1740.In the 15th century, after the
monarchy had been divided into two lines, King
Lhachen Bhagan succeeded in reuniting. The royal
resi-dence was then established in Leh.The new dynasty gave itself the name “Namgyal,” (“Great
Victer”), and in fact ladakh enjoyed a period of
cultural flowering under their rule. However, the
country was repeatedly the victim of Tibetan and
Kashmiri covetousness and was forced to defend
itself against some attacks of the Mongols.
At the end of the 17th century the Islamic Kashmir
provided with military assistance against Tibet and
received tribute in payment. In1846 the kingdom
finally lost its independence altogether; it was
occupied and annexed by the Kashmiri Maharaja of the
Dogra Dynasty. The king and the nobility were
exposed of power and the residence of the royal
family was removed to Stok. In1947, when the
Indian-British Raj was divided into Moslem Pakistan
and the Indian Union, the Maharaja of primarily
Islamic Kashmir was un-sure which of two states he
should join with. He appealed to India for
assistance against invading Pakistani troops, which
succeeded in repeling the Pakistan’s attempted
invasion but which has since then claimed full
control over Kashmir, just as Pakistan does. Thus
the succeeding conflicts were pre-programmed. The
conflicting parties continually evaded the demand
for a referendum.
A truce-line (Line of Control) was drawn through
United Nations mediation; since then military forces
of both countries stand facing each other across the
Line. Ladakh, too, has been a victim of the uneven
political situation in the region due to the
ever-recurring fighting and border conflicts with
China as well. Pakistan abandoned a portion of the
Ladakhi region of Baltistan, which it had occupied,
to China. China, furthermore, annexed Aksai-chin,
the north-eastern part of Ladakh bordering on Tibet,
after military clashes with India, with the result
that the old kingdom of Ladakh is divided into four
parts today. And has lost almost 38,000 km of land. |
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Monasteries of Ladakh |
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Initially, the monasteries were located far away
from people and noise, like the caves of the
ascetics and hermits from which they frequently
developed. The mandala was commonly used as the
basis of monastery architecture. Not until 16th
century, when the Red and Yellow Hat orders were
drawn into the political conflict between Ladakh and
Tibet the monasteries were built like fortresses in
strategically important locations and elevated high
above the valleys. Only a few monasteries have
remained unchanged since the early phase.
The monasteries, visually and culturally dominating
Ladakh to an amazing extent, as nowhere else on
earth, seem to express the way nature is experienced
here in religious form. They stand on exposed places;
on steep slopes, part of the mountain range itself,
points of crystallization where stone, light and
tranquillity come together. They guard treasure of
many and various kinds; the treasure of wisdom,
expressing itself in the practice of meditation and
right world-view, the treasure of exact knowledge
and mastery of the customs for the benefit of human,
and all through strengthening the good and driving
back evil. Reincarnations of saints are admired in
the person of the abbots of the monasteries.
Smaller monasteries often consist of only one room,
in larger ones on the other hand many buildings
cluster around a central courtyard, in which
ceremonies are celebrated and Chamdances are
presented. The audience sits in a gallery that is
built around the courtyard.
The dukhang,” or assembly hall, is an important
building, in which three areas are separated by
eight or sixteen wooden pillars, and on whose
interior walls scenes from the life of the Buddha,
of the saints and of the abbots are painted.The
ritual prayers and ceremonies of the monks take
place here, as well as the altar of the
protector-deity is here.
In front of the monks’ seats there are small varnish
tables for the ritual objects of Tibetan Buddhism:
Diamond-scepter and bell, hand-drums, teacups for
the traditional butter tea and eating bowl. The
Lhakang is the center of the monastery and is the
most richly decorated area, with beautifully painted
interior rooms expressing respect to the Buddhas,
Bodhisattvas and protector-deities. Initially the
latter were harmful spirits and demons of ancient
popular beliefs which according to tradition were
subsequently subdued by saints and integrated as
guardians of Vajrayana Buddhism. In the course of
time several Lhakangs could be constructed,
witnessesing changes in religious focus and
interpretation of the teachings.
For the most part the monks themselves settle below
the monastery in dwellings, mostly built of adobe,
that belong to them and are inherited from one
generation to another within their families. Today
some of these abodes have glass windows and
electricity, and reflect the social status of the
family through their size, equipment and furnishings.
They often stick like honeycombs on the steep cliff
faces and can only be reached by ladders.
Until recently about ane-fourth of the male
population of Ladakh lived in monasteries; at
present the tendency is declining. Monasticism is
extremely bound up with the structure of the society
as a whole. In most cases a family’s youngest son is
handed over to a monastery as a child and he is
raised there. The family continues to provide for
his material needs. He live together with a teacher
for whom he performs small services and who is
responsible for his religious and personal care. |
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Monks of Monasteries |
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Monk takes his place in the hierarchy according to
his level of education and training, with
corresponding tasks and duties. He is regarded as
fully intended only after he has taken the complete
225 vows. Such monks and lamas are no longer
involved in worldly activities at all, but rather
dedicate themselves exclusively to religion.
The treasure of education is manifest in the
libraries and in the effort to open up wisdom and
knowledge to young people, and finally, the art
treasures make all this aspiration visible as
objects to the eye. Trained monks and other artists,
enlightened through meditation and drawing on the
store of religious faith and experience and have
created amazing painting and sculptures that
decorate the walls of the prayer-rooms and temple.
Both the mind and the spirit can immerse themselves
in contemplation of these mandalas and
representations of the lives of the bodhisattvas and
the saints; fixed as they are in religious memory,
utterly exact in their conception, style and
structure. Meditation deities in all their aspects
serve as aids on the inner path. The splendid colors
and richness of design of the frescoes,
roll-painting (thangkas) and statues contrast with
the wonderful bareness of the monasteries’
architecture and the desert-like mountain landscape
surrounding them. |
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Development of Buddhism in Ladakh |
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During and after the reign of the Emperor Ashoka in
the 3rd century B.C.E. in India Buddhism was spread
with much enthusiasm and was brought to Ladakh,
Tibet and China by way of Kashmir. Ancient reports
describe Kashmir as the hub for the spread of
Buddhism. According to Chinese sources 5000 monks
were settled there at that time. Buddhism was spread
frequently over the following centuries. In 78 C.E.
500 Kashmiri arhats were sent to Tibet.
Scholars such as Sambhota who raised in Kashmir,
translated religious texts and introduce and adapt
the Kashmiri alphabet to the Tibetan language, until
this time which has been purely a spoken language.
Fa-Hien, a Chinese on a pilgrimage to India worte in
399 C.E. that Buddhism was flourishing in Ladakh at
this time. At the beginning of the 7th century C.E.
the first king of Ladakh made Buddhism the state
religion. In the 9th century, King Langdarma or
Tibet, a follower of the Bön religion, repressed
Buddhism, offended monks and destroyed their
monasteries. It was only in the 10th century that
Buddhism could be re-established in Tibet; the
reintroduction took place from Ladakh. The great
scholar of this era was Rinchen Zangpo, who
translated many Sanskrit texts into Tibetan and is
presumed to be the founded a total of 108
monasteries and temples. He brought painters and
craftsmen from Kashmir to decorate them. He has a
deep and lasting influence on the style of Tibetan
religious art.
The combination of superb natural vistas and
interest in a unique art-historical experience has
drawn a growing stream of tourists to Ladakh since
it was allowed to open its borders in 1974. At the
same time the Ladakh gained the opportunity to
expose themselves to the “western” world outside and
thereby to the conflict with its life-style norms. A
moderate modernization followed first reaching the
cities of Leh and Kargil, but which is gradually
reaching more remote valleys as well.
”Efforts at development” on the part of the Indian
motherland bring electric power, radio, television
and western clothing. State schools with Indian
teacher and a university are replacing basic
education, bringing the desire for uniqueness but
unfortunately also uncertainty towards Ladakh’s own,
traditional culture with them.
This traditional culture is caught up in a process
of change; the first of coming fundamental changes
in the society and the traditional system are
already beginns to show. The close connection with
the village population is beginning to loosen, the
number of monks and priests are declining because of
other career opportunities, in the state
administration or in tourism are now available to
those who would have chosen a monastic life in the
past.
On the other hand, western travelers who are
interested in Buddhism often come for a stay in the
monasteries. Lamas and abbots also travel to the
outside world for longer periods of time to give
teachings in the new Buddhist centers abroad. In
this way, Ladakh is once again be-coming a
starting-point for the spread of Buddhism. Tourism,
sparked by interest in the art treasures of Tibetan
Buddhism also generates urgently needed funds for
preserving them. But it is also a burden for the
monasteries and its initial effects are critical;
Theft of ritual and art objects that are then sold
to tourists is by no means unknown. In addition, the
precious frescoes suffer from the humidity that
results from masses of visitors and their good
condition is correspondingly endangered.
Preservations and restoration are urgently necessary
to protect these distinctive monuments to Vajrayana
art completely and in their original locations
together with all the treasures contained there. |
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Culture of Ladakh People |
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The people of Ladakh have developed a distinctive
and well-adapted culture in response to extreme and
difficult environmental and life conditions, resting
on a flexible economy based on farming and grazing
and extended barter of goods and services. The
technical and social problem of survival was
regarded as capable of being mastered throught
artificial irrigation, socislly anchored community
services and rules concerning mutual assistance.
Because the brief summer period demands everyone’s
participation during sowing and harvest, children,
as well as monks and nuns from the monasteries all
provide a hand.
The main staple food is barley, followed by wheat ;
here only fast-growing varieties can bring a yield.
Apricots and apples as well as vegetables prosper in
the deeper valleys. Some of the village families
move to pastures higher up in the mountains with
their domestic animals, sheep, goats, yaks, and dzo
(a cross between yaks and domestic cattle), and
produce important butter and other milk products
there. Material for heating during the winter is
obtained by collecting dung and dry, spindly wood
from hushes; wool-production is important for
domestic clothing needs and for export.
Until recently transport of local products was
possible only on foot or with the help of beasts of
burden. The courageous Ladakhis make journeys
lasting day or weeks to come to a market or to a
monastery celebration. They must often climb to
passes up to 2000m high just to get from one valley
to another, and crossing gorges and streams is only
possible with the much difficulty.
In spite of these geographical hardships ladakh was
always interweaved by a system of “vital arteries”
seven major traden and caravan routes, representing
the shortest route from India to central Asia, and
from the Middle East to China and Tibet, passed
through here. The caravans could spend the winter in
the capital city of Leh, and important market and
trade center arose there. Ladakh’s isolation from
the rest of the world was overcome here,and cultural
contacts were made possible by economic exchange.
Tea, salt, wood, metal, silk and jewelry could be
obtained in exchange for domestic surplus products.
Religious teachers also came on these roads and
broughts. Refugees came and brought foreign culture
with them. |
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Problem Areas of Ladakh
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One main drastic loss that Ladakh has has to suffer
has been the closing of the ancient and vital trade
route to central Asia and China and the resulting
cessation of free commercial traffic. Also, it was a
result, Ladakh become ever more dependent on India
economically. Indian in its turn recognized Ladakh’s
strategic significance and built up numerous
military bases and strengthened spends a great deal
on the construction of roads and bridges, power
supply, irrigation and many other development
projects and tries to bind the remote area closer to
itself. The desire for autonomy has been repressed
until now; however, Ladakh took a first step towards
greater independence from the State of jammu and
Kashmir when it gained Hill Council Status in 1995.
The character of the population has changed in the
last decades: it has been manipulated by the
presence of Indian soldiers by Tibetan refugees, and
by economically motivated immigration from Kashmir.
The latter, together with the tourists, cause the
number of inhabitants of Leh to increase many times
over during the summer months.
As desirable as the opening of the country in 1974
was for foreign contacts and tourism. It brought the
Ladakhi population additional cultural and social
pressures und in-security as well. The tension
between” western” lifestyle, bringing new profession
and a money economy on the one hand, and the
traditional barter economy and religiously embedded
way of life on the other is unmistakeable.
Due to changes in population policy, i.e. high
immigration and even higher birth rates, resulting
in part from the prohibition of the traditional
polyandry, the ancient mode of economy, bound as it
was to limited land resources, is no longer
sufficient. New opportunities for jobs and training
drain the villages of young people and men; this in
turn disrupts the traditional, tried and tested
structures of communal living. For example, to-day
foreign labor power must be imported into the
country for agricultural work; this in turn consumes
a major portion of the profits.
Another new problem facing Ladakh, ensuing from the
political and military conflict between India and
Pakistan, is the deepened separation and even
arguments between Moslems and Buddhists, although
these religions had coexisted cordially until now.
Islam had come to Ladakh from Kashmir and had taken
root only in western Ladakh, mainly in the area of
Kargil. In the capital itself about one-third of the
inhabitants are Moslem, and marriages between Ladakh
women and Moslem men were usual. But the trend
towards fundamentalism has left its traces; within
Ladakh there is now less mutual religious tolerance.
With its Buddhist majority, Ladakh blames the
government in Srinagar of inadequately respecting
its cultural independence and integrity, and feels
itself oppressed and economically exploited by the
kashmiri Moslems. Ironically, the several stires in
Leh offering Buddhist souvenirs are run by Moslem
merchants from Kashmir. They earn their living by
selling reproductions of Buddhist art treasures,
made in Srinagar by Moslem craftsmen. |
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Gur
- Special Ladakhi Tea |
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It is unthinkable for the
ladakhi to drink water
during the long harsh winter, but at the same time
it becomes necessary for them to consume some sort
of liquid to eliminate the adverse effects of
dehydration so they drink Gur-gur or salt tea in
huge quantity in all seasons.
Tea is the national drink of
the Ladakhis,
which is enormously consumed by both men and women.
Fifteen cups of tea is quite a normal at the functions like
marriages and birth
ceremonies and other social occasions in a day, consuming between
thirty to fifty of tea amid dancing and laughter. Ladakhi often drinks a
quarter to half a cup, fill it up; and put the lid
on the cup to keep the tea hot and to protect it
from dust etc. The cup is always refilled unless
there is going to be a real break in the drinking.
The apparatus in which tea is churned is called Gur-gur, which is a cylindrical wooden churn with a
dasher. Perhaps tea owes its name to the sound the
churner makes at the time of mixing of its chief
ingredient i.e the tea brew, salt milk and butter.
How the tea is prepared deserves a little mention.
Some tea leaves with a pinch of soda bicarbonate is
put in water and the pan is placed on fire and
boiled vigorously adding water intermittently till
it gives a thick red coloured brew. The brew is
strained through a sieve and stored in another pot
to be used later for making tea. A Ladakhi feels out
of sorts and complaint of having headache if they do
not take the desired quantity of tea in the morning.
Through he or she is entitled to three long courses
of tea a day, but before going out to attend to
doing work have a dozen or more cups of tea.
Doctors do not recommend such an enormous
consumption of salt tea to people who suffer from
high blood pressure, but the majority of the
Ladakh is regard tea as the best anti-dehydration
measure. Paying little head to the doctors' advice
they take their normal quota tea on all days.
In social gatherings men and women of blue birth has
to be requested formally to drink tea or Chang, the
local barley beer by the serving boy or girl by
saluting or striking thrice the Tung-tak, the conch
shells bangles, then the lady or the gentleman is
obliged to take a sip of the beverage, such a huge
consumption of tea invariably results in much
urination in the cold months as the extra quantity
of liquid gets no exit in the form of perspiration
from the body.
Our local Ladakh Partner is given the special privilege during the Hemis and
Lamayuru festivals of Ladakh. The special souvenir
of Ladakhi handicraft are given
to each tourists. |
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