Wiktionary
n. A sparsely-populated, predominately Buddhist region, now administered by India as part of the state of Jammu and Kashmir, which is bordered by the Kunlun mountain range in the north and the main Great Himalayas in the south.
Wikipedia
Ladakh ("land of high passes") ( Ladakhi: ལ་དྭགས la'dwags; ; ) 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.
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. Ladakh is renowned for its remote mountain beauty and culture. 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 war over 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.
In terms of pronunciation, the use of
Ladakh Lok Sabha constituency is one of the six Lok Sabha (parliamentary) constituencies in Jammu and Kashmir state in northern India.Ladakh Lok Sabha constituency is the largest Lok Sabha constituency in India in terms of area with 173266.37 km. The number of electors(voters) in Ladakh (Lok Sabha constituency) is 1.59 lakhs.
Usage examples of "ladakh".
Although the existence of wall-paintings has been well known, adequate colour photographs are only now being published, principally of interiors in Ladakh and Bhutan outside political Tibet.
Skorupski The cultural heritage of Ladakh, 2 vols, Warminster, 1977-80.
Other groups are recognised along the southern borders as of probably different origins again, such as the Mon, a name used to designate populations stretching from Ladakh in the west to the Sino-Tibetan border regions in the south-east.
The wall-paintings that have been studied for art history and iconography comprise the work, much of it early, in the temples and monasteries of western Tibet, including Ladakh, and that found in temples and monasteries in south-central Tibet.
Most of a three-dimensional mandala in stucco existed until recently in a western Tibetan temple and elsewhere in western Tibet, including Ladakh, stucco modelling in the round or in high relief has been recorded.