A survey of travelogue literature shows a surprising number of illustrations of the Leh bazaar, perhaps more uniformly acknowledged as an important site than any other single place in the Kingdom of Jammu and Kashmir.
This may be because it was the only focal point in Leh; the sights of Srinagar may have simply provided more varied sights to visitors. As Rizvi points out, in the trading networks of Central Asia the “most vibrant of the trading stations” were towns between inhabited and uninhabited sections of routes, where traders would rest and refuel before continuing onward, or the “first sizeable settlement reached by caravans” after inhospitable terrain. In this region such locations included the towns of Yarkend, Khotan, Kashgar, and Leh. Thus, according to Knight again, (this time in the summer and early fall) in Leh, there is such a motley collection of types and various costumes, and such a babble of different languages, as it would not be easy to find elsewhere. Savage Tartars in sheepskins, and other outlandish men, jostle with the elegant Hindoo merchant from the cities of Central India, and the turbulent Mussulman Pathan scowls at the imperturbable idolaters from the Celestial Empire. Leh in September is, indeed, one of the busiest and most crowded of cities, and the storekeepers and farmers who have to supply this multitude must make a very good profit for this time. Leh is therefore a very cosmopolitan city, even in the dead season; for there are resident merchants and others of various races and creeds. Small as is the permanent population, at least four languages are in common use here - Hindostani, Tibetan, Turki, and Kashmiri -while several others are spoken.
The social impact of the presence of such international diversity in the small community of Leh will be discussed later; however we can conceptualize the bazaar space as an important cultural contact zone with a variety of forms of cultural expression and social interaction. This type of diverse international bazaar scene was not only found in Ladakh, but common in most of the cities linked to Ladakh along the trade routes of Central Asia.
This town was the site of the palace of the Ladakhi King Sengge Namgyal, who ruled during the early seventeenth century, in what is called the Golden Age of Ladakh. His father, Jamyang Namgyal, is also remembered as one of the key historical figures in Ladakh’s history, although there are differing versions of his life. David Snellgrove has written that the King Jamyang Namgyal was forced to marry the daughter of the invading ruler of Baltistan, Ali Mir. While this implies that the marriage of Jamyang Namgyal and Gyal Khatoon (Ali Mir’s daughter) was a sign of colonization by Balti powers, Ladakhi history accounts have a different version. One Ladakhi text relates that rather than being invaded by Baltistan, the Ladakhis tried to invade Baltistan under the direction of Jamyang Namgyal, who was captured by the enemy. While a prisoner of war in Baltistan he developed a relationship with Gyal Khatoon and was subsequently peacefully released. Despite the subtleties of the story both accounts agree that the couple had a son, named Sengge Namgyal. The dates of Sengge Namgyal’s rule are a site of further dispute; however most authors agree that this period from the last few decades of the sixteenth century to the first few decades of the seventeenth century was a key time in the monarchical era of Ladakhi history. The Leh palace, which Ladakhi royalty inhabited until their fall from power, was constructed at this time along with many important Buddhist monasteries that still function today, including Hemis, Chemre, and Tashi Gong.
Leh became an important power center of Ladakh and during this time period the Leh based royal aristocracy/nobility comprised approximately three percent of the total population.
The rule of subsequent Ladakhi kings can best be characterized as a series of conflicts and alliances with foreign powers. During the reign of King Deldan Namgyal, 1620-45, Moghuls attacked from Kashmir and were defeated in Ladakh. In the times of King Delek Namgyal, 1645-75 the Tibetan army invaded and Ladakhis paid tribute to the Mughal emperor for military aid from the Mughal army in Kashmir under Fidai Khan. The war during the reign of Delek Namgyal actually involved several international political powers of the times, since the Tibetan army was commanded by the fifth Dalai Lama, whose political power was backed by the Mongols and the Mughal army represented the power of rulers in Delhi and Srinagar. As part of the political agreement with Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb for protection, King Delek Namgyal became Muslim, although his descendents were Buddhist. Delek Namgyal is attributed with the construction of Jamia Masjid of Leh in 1666-67, a Sunni Muslim mosque that continues to occupy the site of original construction at the end of the main bazaar road under the Leh palace. The original form of this mosque, now obscured by recent construction, was influenced by the architectural traditions of Central Asia and Tibet. These patterns of international contact and alliances with neighboring Asian countries continued under King Deskyong Namgyal (1720-39), who was married to princess from Mustang.
In Ladakh, the final reigning local monarch was Tsepal Tundup Namgyal (1808-30), who constructed Stok palace. Political conditions are generally thought to have deteriorated during the rule of this king. Descriptions of the royal family and Leh elites were written by two English employees of the English East India Company, William Moorcroft and George Trebeck, who traveled to Ladakh from 1819-25 (published as Moorcroft and Trebeck 1841). Many of these descriptions were soon outdated, however, with the advent of the Dogra regime in Ladakh and subsequent stationing of a British officer in Leh in 1867. This policy change was the result of a number of political changes taking place in the geopolitical landscape surrounding Ladakh, especially to the east, where the fermenting political issues change in Chinese Turkistan, or Chinese Central Asia was a site for the power struggles of the Great Game.
During the final decades of the nineteenth century the politics of the Great Game managed to continue to radically alter trade interactions between Chinese Central Asia and British South Asia. Ladakh, poised in the middle, continued to be involved with traders from both regions. By 1870 the British government and the Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir’s government had jointly agreed to free transKarakorum trade of duties, which increased the importation of pash-mina from Chinese Central Asia and Western Tibet to the Punjab region. While this may have decreased the importance of the Ladakh region as a production center, it increased the importance of the regional trade routes, markets, and traveling infrastructure. The establishment of the British Agency in Leh reportedly quadrupled trade going to British India within four years, in spite of the trade restrictions on the Chinese side. Among other goods, fine carpets continued to travel from Chinese Central Asia producing centers through Ladakh to South Asia and ultimately sometimes to European markets. In the Sunni mosque in Leh today one can view a pair of long carpets, spectacular specimens of nineteenth-century carpets transported along the trade route, which were offered by two traders Khwoja Hydershah and Nasar-Ul-Din-Shah and brought on camels from Yarkend in approximately 1861.
Thus by the beginning of the twentieth century seeds of change were sown that would ultimately lead to the end of many trading networks through Ladakh. The strengthening of Chinese power in Chinese Turkistan, weak position of the British trade in Central Asia, and increased resistance to British involvement in the sub-continent signified great changes were about to come. Ladakhis of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were immersed in this cosmopolitan world of diverse social customs, political interests, and economic arenas. This diversity would shape not only an entire society, but families and individuals as well.
~~Trade and Contemporary Society along the Silk Road -by- Jacqueline H. Fewkes
No comments:
Post a Comment