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Front cover of 120-page A4 photo-book.
Little Tibet in India's high Himalayas.
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Introduction text to 120-page photo-book -- Ladakh -- Little Tibet in India's high Himalayas.
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All best seen in Set sequence. Scroll down photo-page for info.
Upshi in the bottom right corner is where we turned east into the Changthang heading for Tso Moriri and Korzok.
Ladakh Village Life: You Tube
www.youtube.com/results?search_query=ladakh+village+life
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wikimapia Leh Palace
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Leh Palace
Part dilapidated, but under restoration, the towering nine-storey Palace, former royal residence, awes all. Influenced by early dzong fortresses in Tibet, it in turn became precedent model for the Potala at Lhasa. Ladakhi's greatest king, Sengge (Lion) Namgyal built it at the beginning of the 17th C, though it was later damaged by invaders, forcing the Ladakhi royal family to move to Stok.
Perched up, the castle's stark facade, dun coloured like the surrounding terrain, seems as one with the rocky landscape, its soaring walls tapering a little to give stability. The walls were constructed following the traditional system adapted across the Himalayas of alternating stone with timber. The Palace's lower heavy walls are built of dressed stones with a layer of timber bonding every 3m. The Palace's upper walls are constructed of mud bricks.
The palace of the "Lion King" was not only a royal fortress but was surrounded by a circuit of buildings that was also fortified. Although the buildings served different functions the contiguous blank outer facades were loopholed and provided additional defences.
Buddhist shrines, and today museum facilities, are incorporated in the large structure. One recently-restored temple preceded the Palace, though not much of the ancient material survived.
Above the incorporated gompas in the Palace, the fourth and fifth floors formed the royal residence and main hall where the king held court. On the sixth floor is the throne room and another small temple. It was all once grandly decorated but is now mainly bare. Recessed terraces and projecting balconies provide wonderful views over the town and spectacular landscape.
........
"The fortress palace of Sengge Namgyal at Leh:
The finest secular building in Ladakh was built in Leh in the mid 1630s by Sengge Namgyal as his palace. Built, like the palaces at Shey and Basgo, at the southern end of a mountain spur it looms over and dominates the town that lies at its foot. The rectangular palace is nine storeys tall and has the aura of a fortress, although it has served as the palace of the royal family until recent times.
Why Sengge built his palace here is open to speculation. Certainly Shey is a more strategic site and had been strongly fortified long before Leh received its city wall. It has been postulated that towards the end of Sengge's reign Leh's position as a long trading town had eclipsed all the other towns in the Indus valley, particularly Shey. In addition there was a comparatively peaceful environment. This mighty palace exudes power even now, and remains a visual statement of the wealth of Ladakh's most famous king.
Built of well-coursed field stone in a mud mortar., the palace is nine storeys tall on its south and eastern aspect with the lower two storeys devoid of any external openings. Measuring approx 100 by 50m (330 by 165 ft) the solitary entrance is via a porticoed doorway into its eastern wall. All four walls slope inward and are massively buttressed. The openings at each floor level are arranged one above another. Those at the lowest levels are very narrow, little more than loopholes but increase in size as the floors rise; many of the window-sized openings of the top four storeys are provided with wooden balconies. Nearly all the openings face east with a few to the south. Both these sides are surrounded by buildings of two to four storeys, rising up in tiers from the town. They appear contemporaneous with the fortress palace and almost all of their outer facades are blank apart from narrow loophole-type openings. Like all buildings in Ladakh they are flat roofed.
The architect and architectural precedents are unknown; certainly no other secular building rises to the same height and it is rivalled in its enormity only by one or two of the largest valley monasteries. The palace is recorded as being built in three years and completed a number of years before the king's death. Thus it pre-dates the Potala Palace, Lhasa. (PH)
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Enlarge:
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Further enlarge: Then press F11 on a PC, or Fullscreen. Allow re-focus.
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.
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wikimapia Leh Palace
Leh Palace
Part dilapidated, but under restoration, the towering nine-storey Palace, former royal residence, awes all. Influenced by early dzong fortresses in Tibet, it in turn became precedent model for the Potala at Lhasa. Ladakhi's greatest king, Sengge (Lion) Namgyal built it at the beginning of the 17th C, though it was later damaged by invaders, forcing the Ladakhi royal family to move to Stok.
Perched up, the castle's stark facade, dun coloured like the surrounding terrain, seems as one with the rocky landscape, its soaring walls tapering a little to give stability. The walls were constructed following the traditional system adapted across the Himalayas of alternating stone with timber. The Palace's lower heavy walls are built of dressed stones with a layer of timber bonding every 3m. The Palace's upper walls are constructed of mud bricks.
The palace of the "Lion King" was not only a royal fortress but was surrounded by a circuit of buildings that was also fortified. Although the buildings served different functions the contiguous blank outer facades were loopholed and provided additional defences.
Buddhist shrines, and today museum facilities, are incorporated in the large structure. One recently-restored temple preceded the Palace, though not much of the ancient material survived.
Above the incorporated gompas in the Palace, the fourth and fifth floors formed the royal residence and main hall where the king held court. On the sixth floor is the throne room and another small temple. It was all once grandly decorated but is now mainly bare. Recessed terraces and projecting balconies provide wonderful views over the town and spectacular landscape.
Some Ladakhi/Tibetan-Buddhist terms:
Leh’s Dosmochey/-chay (festival), e.g.below Leh Palace/ central Leh, market Bazaar centre, polo grounds etc..
Also Likir, tak-tok monasteries.
Chams/chamms: The Tibetan cham dance is a lively masked-and-costume dance associated with some sects of Tibetan Buddhism and Festivals; as in Ladakh/Zanskar.
Cham mask dance as in yellow-hat – gelugpa sect (most common in Ladakh); red-hat – Nyingma (old) sect.
Major Festivals of Ladakh: Hemis; Losar; Sindhu, Dosmoche.
Losar is a Festival in Tibetan Buddhism. The holiday is a New Year’s Festival celebrated on the first day of the Tibetan calendar year.
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