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Religion & Culture
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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