Embedded in Stone—Early Buddhist Rock Art of Ladakh

Phuntsog Dorjay

While discussing the history of Ladakh, one invariably slips into talking about how Buddhism came into being in the region. In other words, there is a thin dividing line between the wider history of Ladakh and the initiation and advancement of Buddhism. Moreover, it is difficult to look at Ladakh in isola- tion from what occurred in other parts of the Western Himalayan region. This is a reflection of the powerful impact of Buddhism, and the extent to which almost all political events revolved around its propagation. Limited information is available on the history of Buddhist art in Ladakh prior to the establishment of the Alchi group of monuments in the 11–13th cen- turies CE, as there has hardly been any precise documentation of facts and figures. There is also a lack of comparative information on the region and its neighbours. It is even difficult to ascertain when exactly Buddhism was intro- duced, as there are very few written sources from which the region’s early his- tory can be reconstructed, while the available archaeological evidence cannot yet be securely dated. Since the earliest Buddhist heritage of the region is in the form of rock carvings, a comparative study of rock sculptures and inscrip- tions, as well as of contemporary trade relations and routes, can throw some light on early art-historical aspects of the region. The major rock carvings of the region have been noted since the colonial period when Western explorers and administrators began to visit Ladakh. Moorcroft’s Travels (1841) and Cunningham’s Ladak (1854) mention the Mulbek Maitreya and the Dras sculptures. However, the earliest scholarly reference to the rock carvings was made by Francke in Antiquities of Indian Tibet (1914), followed much later by Petech in The Kingdom of Ladakh (1977) and Snellgrove & Skorupski in The Cultural Heritage of Ladakh (1977 and 1980). More recent art- historical analysis acknowledging Kashmiri influence in the early temples of Ladakh was made by Pratapaditya Pal in A Buddhist Paradise: The Mural of Alchi, Western Himalaya (1982) and by Roger Goepper in Alchi: Ladakh’s Hidden Buddhist Sanctuary (1996). In this article I analyse the various rock carvings mentioned by these schol- ars and travellers as well as presenting new findings of my own. This work is based on a more precise documentation and a comparative study between Ladakhi stone sculpture and Kashmiri bronzes. The idea for such a comparison

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ���4 | doi ��.��63/9789004271807_�04 36 Dorjay had been suggested before (Luczanits 2005:68), but no serious study to that effect had been carried out. I conducted a large-scale documentation of rock sculptures in Kargil and Leh districts, as well as in the Nubra valley, during the years 2001 to 2008. The stone carvings here taken into consideration may be grouped into the following geographical areas of investigation (see map, Figure 2.1):

Kargil area Dras, Mulbek, Tumel, Kartse and Byama Khumbu.

Leh area Khalatse, Alchi, Saspol, Nimo, Skyu, Taru, Leh , Shey and Sakti.

Nubra area Digar, Hundar, Tirith and Sumur.

Early Rock Art

Prehistoric petroglyphs are found throughout Ladakh. The carvings are pecked or chiselled into the dark brown varnished surface of boulders scattered on riverbanks and valley terraces. Dani concludes that two things are evident: that the examples of rock art, spread all over the Western Himalaya/Karakoram region, are interrelated; and that there is a continuity in this rock art from early times up to the historic period in such a way that we may well speak of a language of cultural continuity from prehistory to the early mediaeval period, where more sources of study are available to us (Dani 1982). Prehistoric rock carvings of various stages are found in Ladakh, although I have not been able to date them. The earliest group appears to include simple line drawings of ibex and human figures, representing geometric forms only. Scenes showing hunters with arrows, individually and in groups, are also found, implying that the ear- lier people who inhabited Ladakh were hunters and food gatherers that pre- ceded Mons and so-called Dards, who practised agriculture. The discovery of a vast quantity of antiquities by the ‘Pak-German Study Group’ in the upper Indus and adjoining parts of the northern areas of Pakistan began in 1979, and to date a total of nearly 50,000 rock carvings and 6,000 inscriptions have been recorded (Hauptmann 2005:23). It is difficult to ascertain precisely when Buddhism was introduced to Ladakh, but it may safely be said that the dwellers of Ladakh came into