On 19th December when I was boarding the plane, I met a soldier in the aircraft who was suffering with fever. I offered my shawl to him and he felt comfortable. I enquired from him from where he was coming and he said from Nubra. His sorrowful reply made me inquisitive and I further continued the conversation and in the meantime we landed at Srinagar airport. His expression that there is no road to go to Nubra made me further inquisitive about the people and their life in Nubra valley and since then I started working how to explore Zanskar-Nubra valleys. Since Zanskar remains cut off for a longer period, I decided first to explore and study the Zanskar valley and in the year 1988 Zanskar was explored. During the course of exploration a few monasteries were explored and art objects were photographed. In the year 1989- 90 and 1990-91 Nubra Valley was explored.
The main objective of this study was to examine architectural details of the structures and historical objects housed therein and also to identify and date them.
The extensive inventory is a corpus of information of Antiquarian remains.
The present study is largely the preliminary survey. It is hoped that further exploration may reveal many more details in future.
It is bounded on the north by the Karakoram and Kuenlum ranges, on the east and south by the Chinese districts of R:udok and Chumurti, on the south by Lahul and Spiti valley and on the west by Khurmang, Chorbat and the areas of Askardu.
It is divided into five regions Leh, Nubra, Rupshu, Zanskar and lower Ladakh. Leh is the Administrative Headquarter of Ladakh and is situated in the big flat valley of the Indus river.
Nubra falls on the north-eastern side. The lower Ladakh lies along the road which joins Ladakh with the Kashmir valley.
The principal river of the region is Indus which flows from south-east to north- west through greater part of the region. A number of smaller tributaries also join it, amongst which Shyok on the north, Zanskar, Suru and Drass on the south are important.
One generally believes and reads in histories that Ladakh was a part of the Tibet.
This misleading statement became popular due to general vagueness. In a broad cultural sense, the term Tibet covers a far wider territory than was ever administered by Dalai-Lama in Lhasa.
Prior to 10th century CE the central and eastern Tibet was unified under the suzerainty of Mongols who having taken over China as well remained the imperial rulers until 1368 CE The unification of central and eastern Tibet under the authority compelled some of the descendents of old kingdom to migrate towards west and they carved small kingdoms for themselves in remote regions of the west.
This collapse of the old kingdom put an end to hope of any royal protection of the religion in central Tibet. The royal descendents who established themselves in small kingdoms took up the task. of extending protection in the western Tibet (Ladakh) and deputed groups of scholars and artisans to Kashmir and the surrounding areas in order to build up collections and translation of Buddhist literature and to import Buddhist cultic and artistic traditions which resulted largely into an Indian impact in the monasteries and temples. A large number of temples and monasteries which survive in Ladakh have Indian and Indo-Tibetan style in the monasteries of Lamayurn, Alchi and Sumda in Zanskar region and later Tibetan style in the monasteries built from 16th centuries onwards in and around Leh and Nubra valley. The monasteries built in the early phase are generally located on the plain land, mostly on the bank of the rivers, and subsequently, commissioned on the hill tops due to fear of the invaders.
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Art (271)
Biography (244)
Buddha (1947)
Children (75)
Deities (50)
Healing (33)
Hinduism (58)
History (533)
Language & Literature (445)
Mahayana (420)
Mythology (73)
Philosophy (420)
Sacred Sites (108)
Tantric Buddhism (93)
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