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People
Groups in Ladakh |
Posted:
Apr 26, 2003 9:19 AM |
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I’ve told
stories about my treks, about the school, about living here, and about my
travels in India and Nepal. Now, I am going to start a set of stories about
the people here. This post will be mainly about the various people groups
that can be found in Leh and Ladakh. Other future posts will talk about
specific individuals, about the religions over here, and about villages and
village life.
Leh is currently 60 percent Buddhist and 40 percent Muslim. Right now, the
Buddhists keep a tight rein on both the Muslim and Christian groups here.
This includes things like threatening the Christians if they try to
evangelize Buddhists, and putting stipulations on which prayers the mosque
can broadcast. I’ve been told that in 5-6 years, the Muslims will surpass
the Buddhists in number, though, and at that time they will have to redo
their working relationships. But right now, everyone gets along fairly well.
People groups can be broken down into the following categories:
1. Ladakhi Buddhists
2. Ladakhi Muslims
3. Ladakhi Christians
4. Baltis (Muslim)
5. Kargilese (Muslim)
6. Kashmiris (Muslim)
7. Nepalese (Hindu)
8. Tibetans
9. Military (Hindu and Sikh)
10 Villagers (Buddhist)
As you can see, these are primarily distinguished by religions. It will take
an entire separate article to talk about the religions. And I will be doing
a separate article on the villagers, as well. Today, I will focus on the
first 9 groups, most briefly.
Ladakhi Buddhists. This is the largest group in Leh. This is also the same
group as almost a hundred percent of the villagers that I will talk about
next time. Men and women wear gonchas, which are reddish brown robes with
brass buttons. And, they wear them year-round. I am having such a goncha
tailor-made for myself for when I return to the states. Their hats are small
ones with the sides coming up into a point, and an arch exposing the
forehead. They walk around Leh with a prayer wheel or prayer beads quietly
saying their “Om Mani Padme Hum” chant. Of course, the younger generation
wears western clothes. There is a guy here selling Green Bay Packers
jackets. 12 time zones away, and he knows what is good! These are very
friendly people as individuals. Get them in a group, though, and they will
push and shove. There are no lines at the banks, post office, airport or
other such places. Everyone just jockeys for the best position. As at
school, they go by two given names, and not a family name. These include
Angmo, Dechen, Dolker, Dorjay, Ishey, Jigmet, Kunzes, Lobzang, Morup,
Namgyal, Padma, Phuntsog, Rigzin, Rinchen, Singgay, Sonam, Stanzin, Thinles,
Tsering, Tsetan, Tsewang, Tundup and Yangchan, and very few others. Most can
be used by males or females. My spell-checker has ALL of these names
underlined!
2. Ladakhi Muslims. This is not a large group. But, they do exhist. Mainly,
they are descendents of Ladakhis that were converted by force in the 1600’s
when the Muslims invaded Ladakh. At that time, all of the monasteries were
destroyed, save one. The Muslims are also typical Ladakhi’s and most wear
the same dress, though not as many. And, they are a mix of Shia and Sunni
Muslim. There is a
larger Sunni population, but mostly from the other groups. Names here
include things like Parveen, Mohammed, Khan, Ali, Insha, and others.
3. Ladakhi Christians. These include 24 families in Leh, 6 in the Shey
church branch, and maybe 4 in Khaltse Village. There are other Christians,
but they are Nepali, military or other non-Ladakhi’s. The Ladakhi Christians
do wear the traditional garb, though without prayer beads or prayer wheels.
But, they have adopted Western Christian names. And, they prefer to sing the
old Ladakhi-language versions of the Western hymns. It is for these reasons
that it is difficult for the church to gain new Ladakhi members.
4. Baltis come from the western part of Ladakh near Kargil, and could
actually be combined with the Kargilese people. They are mostly Muslim and
talk with a funny singsong type of accent. Not too many of them are in Leh,
though.
5. Kargilese people (from Kargil) are moving to Leh in large numbers, mostly
to escape Paki artillery. They are mainly Shia Muslims. Unlike the Ladakhi’s,
they wear one-piece pull-over robes and tuck their arms inside. The Kargil
people are also here for work. Due to tourism (or the hope of tourism),
there is a lot of construction going on. The bulk of this is done by the
Kargilese, as the Ladakhi’s don’t like to do this type of work. The
Ladakhi’s will build their own houses or walls, but will not do this for
someone else. They also run the majority of businesses on Main Bazaar. The
influx of people from Kargil is the reason the Muslim population in Leh is
nearing the same as the Buddhist population.
6. Kashmiris. This is the other large group of Muslims in Leh. Most of these
people are Sunni Muslim. This is the group that runs all of the tourist
shops, and most of the non-Ladakhi guesthouses and restaurants. I have many
friends among this Kashmiri group, and they have been keeping me informed as
to the militancy situation in Srinigar. But, friend or no friend, when I
want to buy something from them, they STILL try and get every last rupee
possible out of me. There are a few honest ones, and these are the ones I
will buy my souvenirs from in June. I visited most of these friends while in
Goa this past January.
7. Nepalese. The people from Nepal also have discovered this area, and many
have moved here. I have a good friend who runs a phone shop here who is
Nepali. On treks, as well, it is the Nepali people that do the cooking.
Besides being good cooks, the Nepalese will do other jobs that Ladakhis will
not do, such as cut hair.
8. Tibetans. There is a HUGE population of Tibetan refugees here. In fact,
the only school larger than mine is the Tibetan school. The Tibetan language
is different, but similar to Ladakhi, and the Bodhi script is the same. My
main contact with the Tibetans is that they have most of the horses that are
used on pony treks here in Ladakh. My trek this summer will be with my two
favorite ponymen and their horses.
9. Military. With Pakistan being so near, there is a large contingent of
military here. They have a presence at every large gathering, and monitor
the roads and passes very carefully. I have several friends among this
group, including my best keyboard student at this time. The majority of the
military here is either Sikh or Hindu, with the notable exception of the
local regiment, the Ladakhi Scouts. I’ll talk more about the military in a
future post. |
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