Historical Background of Kargil Ladakh

Ladakh it is bounded on the north & east by China, in the northwest by Gilgit & Skardu now occupied by Pakistan, in the western side Bara mullah, Srinagar & Annantnag district of Kashmir valley, while the state of Himachal Pradesh touches its borders.

Kargil is a small town located on the bank of Suru River. Its name is famous in the world by Kargil war 1999. ‘Actually, it was a big lake of ocean once. The lake once went all the way up to Lama Yuru and Khalsi. It was formed when a large boulder fell into the river Indus at Kachora in Baltistan. To this day there is alluvial soil on both sides of the Indus. This is said to be proof that a lake once existed there.’ This writes Parwez Diwan in his book ‘A History of Ladakh, Gilgit, and Baltistan’. He also writes that People began to settle in Kargil area after the water of the lake got drained off. The first settlers were the Dards and Indo Aryan, people from central Asia, who came through Gilgit. The Tibetans might have come even before, but they were nomads and were late in setting down. The Mons was the third group of settlers.

Area

About the area Prem Singh Jina writes in his book, ‘Ladakh: The land and the people’ that Ladakh had 95,876 square kilometers area before Independence and was divided in Leh, Kargil and Skardu Tehsil. After 1947, it lost Skardu and some of its parts in the east in Pakistan and Chinese aggression respectively.

It has now only 58321 square kilometers and is divided in two districts of Leh and Kargil. Leh has 39400 hectares and rest of the area comes under Kargil.

Agriculture

The land of Kargil is too fertile, people grow Apricots, Apples, Grapes and Cherry. Potato, cabbage, onion, cauliflower, turnip, beans are the main vegetables. Barely, wheat, peas and maize are the main crops.

Culture

The district Kargil was once known as Purig. The region called 'Purig' included the area around Kargil town, the Suru Valley, Shakar Chiktan, Pashkyum, Bodh Kharbu and Mulbekh.

Parwez Dewan writes in his book that there are four theories about the name Purig itself. One is that it is a contraction of the Tibetan phrase ‘pot reeks’ which means ‘of Tibetan stocks. In that case, the name probably dates to the era when a Tibetans dynasty first established a govt. in most of Purig. The people of Purig are known as Purigpa. They speak a language that is closer to Tibetan than as the language of Leh district.

Purki is the daily use language of this region. The mother of this language is Tibetan, but later on it has been influenced by many other languages. Beside this Balti and Sheena language is also speak in many parts of district Kargil.

Dress

Guncha: a long woolen gown is a cultural dress of this region. The people prepare it at their local hand looms and use local breed sheep wool. Pabu, Kratpa are local foot wears made from domestic animal’s skin.

With the influence of modern culture now people prefer to use feather jacket, Coat paint, jeans and cotton clothes.

Transport

The people in this snow land were used to these animals like Horses, donkey, dzo (zo) and yak for carrying loads. However, on difficult passes local people carried loads on their back.

Now with a growth in development almost every village is connected by roads to its main districts. People use light vehicles like Tata mobiles in remote places and heavy vehicles like tipper, Truck in plain areas to carry loads.

Communication

Post system is avail in district Kargil. And there was only one telecommunication network i.e BSNL. Now Airtel network has also made its stand in district Kargil.

Festivals

In spite of its extreme weather condition and inadequate means of communication Ladakh has been a land of festivals and crowded fairs. Most of the festivals no doubt revolves round the religion theme.

Eid Nauroz, Eid ul Fitr, Eid Qurban and Eid Barat are celebrated every year with great zeal by the Muslim. This celebration begins with the extensive illumination of houses. The graveyards streets and main bazaar are thronged by small children’s and sweets are distributed among them.

Similarly, Losar ‘the new year day’ is the most well-known festival of the Buddhists’. The New Year celebration begins in the tenth month of the Buddhist calendar which fell sometime in December.

There are many other festivals which are celebrated by the people of Kargil like Harvesting festival, Archery festival etc.

                         Abdul Hussain Muntazree     (2014-15)                   

This write up is based on the books written

 by  P.S.Jina, Parvez Dewan and M. Amin Pandit