Ladakh ("land of high passes")
is a region in Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir that
currently extends from the Kunlun mountain range to the main Great Himalayas to the south, inhabited by people
of Indo-Aryan and Tibetan descent. It
is one of the most sparsely populated regions in Jammu and Kashmir and its
culture and history are closely related to that of Tibet. Ladakh is renowned for its remote
mountain beauty and culture.
Historically, the region included
the Baltistan (Baltiyul) valleys (now mostly in Pakistan), the entire upper Indus
Valley, the
remote Zanskar, Lahaul and Spiti to
the south, much of Ngari including the Rudok region and Guge in the east, Aksai
Chin in the
northeast (extending to the Kun Lun Mountains),
and the Nubra Valley to the north over Khardong
La in the Ladakh
Range. Contemporary Ladakh borders Tibet to the east, the Lahaul and Spiti regions
to the south, the Vale of Kashmir, Jammu and Baltiyul regions to the west, and the
southwest corner of Xinjiang across the Karakoram Pass in
the far north.
Aksai
Chin is one of the
disputed border areas between China and India. It is administered by China as
part of Hotan County but is also claimed by India as a part of the Ladakh
region of the state of Jammu and Kashmir.
In 1962, China and India fought a brief warover
Aksai Chin and Arunachal Pradesh,
but in 1993 and 1996 the two countries signed agreements to respect the Line of Actual Control.
In the past Ladakh gained importance
from its strategic location at the crossroads of important trade
routes, but since the Chinese authorities closed the borders with Tibet
and Central Asia in the 1960s, international trade has dwindled except for tourism.
Since 1974, the Government of India has successfully encouraged tourism in Ladakh.
Since Ladakh is a part of strategically important Jammu and Kashmir, the Indian military maintains
a strong presence in the region.
The largest town in Ladakh is Leh, followed by Kargil. Almost half of Ladakhis are Shia
Muslims and the
rest are mostly Tibetan Buddhists. Some
Ladakhi activists have in recent times called for Ladakh to be constituted as
a union territory because of perceived unfair treatment by Kashmir and
Ladakh's cultural differences with predominantly Muslim Kashmir.