11/12/2011
Leh, Ladakh.
Ladakh, a part of Jammu & Kashmir State in north of India consisting of two districts Leh and Kargil. Leh with an area of 45110 Sq Km makes it largest district in the country in terms of area. It lies between 32 to 36 degree North latitude and 75 degree to 80 degree East longitude. The district is bounded by Pakistan occupied Kashmir in the West and China in the north and eastern part and Lahul Spiti of Himachal Pardesh in South East. It is at a distance of 434 Kms from Srinagar and 474 Kms from Manali. Leh district comprises of Leh town and 112 inhabited villages and one un-inhabited village. The total population of Leh district is 1.17 lacs.
From the middle of the 10th Century, Ladakh was an independent kingdom, its dynasties descending from the Kings of Old Tibet. Its Political fortunes ebbed and flowed over the centuries, and thHistory of Ladakh, Ladakh Culturee kingdom, was at its greatest in the early 17th century under the famous king Sengge Namgyal, whose rule extended across Spiti and Western Tibet up to the Mayumla Beyond the sacred sites of Mount Kailash and Lake Mansarovar. It recognized as the best trade route between the Punjab and Central Asia, for centuries it was traversed by caravans carrying textiles and spices, raw silk and carpets, dyestuffs and narcotics. Heedless of the land's rugged terrain and apparent remoteness , merchants entrusted their goods to relays of pony transporters who took about two months to carry them from Amritsar to the Central Asian towns of Yarkand and Khotan. On this long route, Leh was the half way house, and developed into a bustling entrepot, its bazaars thronged with marchants from far countries.
Laddakh together with the neighboring province of Baltistan, was incorporated into the newly created state of Jammu & Kashmir, just over a century later, this union was disturbed by the partition of India , Baltistan becoming part of Pakistan, while ladakh remained in India as part of the state of Jammu and Kashmir.
