Culture Of Ladakh

Presented by: Amandeep singh

CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION HISTORY RELIGION TOURIST ATTRACTION OF LADAKH MUSIC DANCE

LADAKH
Ladakh is the highest plateau of the Indian state of Kashmir with much of it being over 3,000 m (9,800 ft). It spans the Himalayan and Karakoram mountain ranges and the upper Indus River valley. The Ladakh region was bifurcated into the Kargil and Leh districts in 1979. In 1989, there were violent riots between Buddhists and Muslims. Following demands for autonomy from the Kashmiri dominated state government, the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council was created in the 1990s. Leh and Kargil Districts now each have their own locally elected Hill Councils with some control over local policy and development funds.

Religion of Ladakh
Tibetan Buddhism is a mystical religion which absorbed many of the magical and superstitious features of Tibet's previous shamanistic Bon religion, along with elements of Hindu Tantrums. Although Ladakh is usually described as a Buddhist region, there is a large minority of Muslims (about 45%). Constant invasion by Islamic forces in the west of Ladakh gradually led to the conversion of the previously Buddhist people. Most Ladakhi Muslims still live in Kargil District where they account for 85% of the population.

RELIGION OF LADAKH
Tibetan Buddhism Islam Christianity

Tibetan Buddhism
Ladakh is one of the place where you can see this branch of Mahayana Buddhism, sometimes also called Lamaism, being practised as it would have been in Tibet before the brutal Chinese suppression. Buddhism has penneated Ladakhi and Tibetan culture since the 7th century AD. The head of Tibetan Buddhism and traditional political ruler of Tibet is the Dalai Lama, an incarnation of Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva of compassion. The current Dalai Lama is the 14th in a succession that originated in the 14th century and lives in exile in Dharamsala, Himachal Pradesh.

The lamas of Tibetan Buddhism are divided into four main sects.

The oldest is the Nyingmapa Sakyapa Kagyupa Gelukpa, who came from a reform movement in the 1400s and which is led by the Dalai Lama.
All these sects are represented in Ladakh, but the most common among them are the Kagyupa and Gelukpa.
Dalai Lama.

Islam
Although Ladakh is usually described as a Buddhist region,so there is a large minority of Muslims (about 45%). Constant invasion by Islamic forces in the west of Ladakh gradually led to the conversion of the previously Buddhist people. Most Ladakhi Muslims still live in Kargil District where they account for 85% of the population. Here they are puritanical Shiites. Leh also supports a small population of Muslims, mainly Sunnis, who are descended from immigrant Kashmiri and central Asian traders.

LEH MOSQUE

Christianity
There is a small community of Christians in Leh.Among them most of them belong to the top rungs of Ladakhi society and were converted by Moravian missionaries who first came to Ladakh in 1885. They built two churches, one in Leh and one in Shey.

Moravian Church

Tourist Attraction of ladakh

Hemis Gonpa

Sheypalace

Lamayuru Gonpa

MUSIC OF LADAKH

Music of ladakh is diverse due to the fact that music is essentially a source of life and several forms of music are practiced by the local people according to different locations. Gompa music is used in worship and as an accompaniment to the dance-dramas. Two main strains of instrumental music. For public and ceremonial occassions they have been supplanted by the Surna and daman.

 A set of satirical songs are performed by the group of young men and women in traditional couplets. It has a strong of local patriotism. Beat is the most striking feature of their music.

DANCE OF LADAKH
Ladakh

has a rich heritage of folk dance. The dances are elaborate, colourful, and majestic, with mostly slow and gentle movements matched by the richly adorned peraks (head dress), and music.
Among the folk dances are Jabro Dance Tukhstanmo dance Spao dance Loshon Dance Shoudol dance Mentoq Stanmo dance Shon dance Koshan dance Drugpa-Rches Bagstonrches

Each monastery has its own orchestra. The dancers wear elaborate masks ranging from the fearsome and grotesque to the pleasing, and fine silk costumes representing various divinities from the Buddhist pantheon. Chhams The music accompanying the Chhams is generally slow and haunting, and the musical instruments involved are the Dungchen (long horn), Gyaling (oboe), Nga (drums), Silnyen/bubjal (cymbals), kangling (shinbone trumpets), dung (conch shells), Damaru (skull drums) and Drilbu (bells).

 Every year, in February, the masked dances of Dosmoche are performed in the Royal Courtyard at Leh, after a procession through the main bazaar led by Black Hat dancers and followed by everyone from Lamas in religious garb to locals decked out in their splendid traditional costume. The courtyard of the chapel beneath the gates of the palace reverberates with masked Lamas performing the ritual of the dance that is a drama as well as a religious event involving sacrificial offerings at its climax.

Thank you