|
For all its seeming
inaccessibility, Ladakh's position at the centre of a
network of trade routes traditionally kept it in
constant touch with the outside world. From Chinese
Central Asia, the mighty Karakoram range was breached at
the Karakoram pass, a giddy 18,350 feet (5,600 m). The
trail from Yarkand crossed five other passes, of which
the most feared was the glacier, encumbered Saser-la,
north of Nubra. Travellers from Tibet could take one of
two main routes. From the central part of the
|
 |
|
|
country, the Tsang-po
valley, they could pass the holy sites of Kailash-Mansarovar
and reach Fartok, on a tributary of the upper Indus, from
where they followed the river down to Leh. Trade with the
Pashmina producing areas of western Tibet flowed by a more
northern route, taking in the village of Rudok, a few miles
into Tibet, and from there across the 18,300 feet (5,578m)
Chang-la to the Indus, and so to Leh. Baltistan, joined
administratively with Ladakh for 100 years, was linked to it
either via the Indus up to its confluence with the Suru-Shingo
river, and on up to Kargil, or by the Chorbat-la pass over the
Ladakh range, the trail dropping down to the Indus 40 km below
Khalatse, and following the river up to Leh. |
|
The two main approaches to Ladakh from south of the Himalaya are roughly the same as
today's motor roads from Srinagar and Manali. The merchants
and pilgrims who made up the majority of travellers in the
pre-modern era, travelled on foot or horseback, taking about
16 days to reach Srinagar; though a man in hurry, riding
non-stop and with changes of horse arranged ahead of time all
along the route, could do it in as little as three days. The
mails, carried in relays by runners stationed every four miles
or so, took four or five days.
|
 |
