User:Ladakhwiki

LADAKH CONTENTS * Geography * History * Flora and Fauna * Culture * Cuisine * Music and dance * Festivals''' * Lifestyle''' * References

'GEOGRAPHY:' One of the most pristine and sureal places of the world, Ladakh-land of high motorable passess, is located at an altitude of 15,000 feet above the sea level.It is a huge flat plain extended towards snowcaps on everyside and bisected by dryrivers.It is a high,dry region in northern India that borders Tibet and Pakisthan.

HISTORY: Ladakh,located in Jammu and Kashmir state of India holds great historical importance. it is often called 'the world's last Shangri-la'. It is one of the planet's great centers of Himalayan Buddhism, which arrived in the region, centuries before it got to Tibet. It has for centuries been one of the most cosmopolitan trading posts in the Himalayas,through which traders transported silk,indigo,gold and opium to Kashmir,Kashgar,Yarkhand and all the other great carvan stops of the silk road.

FLORA AND FAUNA: Ladakh is a high altitude desert with very scarce vegetation. There are many amid apricot trees and willlows.

CULTURE: Ladakh,often known as world's last 'shangri-la',is one of the planets great centres of Himalayan Buddhism,which arrived in the region ,in fact ,centuries before it got to Tibet. Ladakhi culture is similar to Tibetian culture.Ladakh almost takes in the muslim region of Kargil, so almost half of the population is Islamic. Traditional culture flourishes through Men and women selling necklaces and statues of the Buddha,  mystical scrolls etc. There is a famous winter festivals held in winter when Ladakhis   don't have to work. You can also find musicians sitting on the ground among the poplars ,playing at regular intervals,while a team of elegant men in black robes took on a team of elegant men in white in a traditional archery competition.

1.CUISINE Traditional Ladakhi cuisine, is rare to find in Ladakh because these days cost of local ingridients is more than that of imported ones.Pizza huts are also found in this place.

2.MUSIC AND DANCE: The music of Ladakhi is influenced by Tibetian culture.One of the dance forms here include, the masked lamas, raise their feet up and down,in a slow, colorful set of meditative movements and dances representing scenes from the life of Padmaambhava,the eigteenth-century Indian reformer who brought Tantric Buddism to Tibet.

FESTIVALS: One of the great events of Ladakhi calender,is the 'Tse-chu' festival.During this festival whole settlement is set up around the temple with the sharp-chhecked men and girls seling necklaces and statues of the Buddha,mystical scrolls and even CDs.

LIFESTYLE: People here live in white washed house amid the fields of barley and wheat irrigated by glacial snow melt.one can also find faces that speak Lhasa(Tibet),Herat(Afghanisthan),Samarkand(Uzbekisthan).One can also find skull-capped Muslim elders and Indo-Iranians.Indeed many of the Ladakhi festivals, traditionally held in winter when ladakhis don't work in the fields, have now been moved to the summer so they can grab a foriegn audience.An ecology centre ,a women's alliance and a number of other organizations have been set up,to try to protect the what is unique in Ladakh.It can be observed that the sign boards,like 'Way 2 palace', to get to the palace,are marked upon oil drums and telephone poles.

REFERENCES:: Heaven's gate by Pico Iyyer