Readings on Islam in Ladakh: Local, Regional, and International Perspectives
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HIMALAYA, the Journal of the Association for Nepal and Himalayan Studies Volume 32 Number 1 Ladakh: Contemporary Publics and Article 9 Politics No. 1 & 2 8-2013 Readings on Islam in Ladakh: Local, Regional, and International Perspectives John Bray International Association for Ladakh Studies, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/himalaya Recommended Citation Bray, John. 2013. Readings on Islam in Ladakh: Local, Regional, and International Perspectives. HIMALAYA 32(1). Available at: https://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/himalaya/vol32/iss1/9 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. This Research Article is brought to you for free and open access by the DigitalCommons@Macalester College at DigitalCommons@Macalester College. It has been accepted for inclusion in HIMALAYA, the Journal of the Association for Nepal and Himalayan Studies by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@Macalester College. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Readings on Islam in Ladakh: Local, Regional, and International Perspectives Acknowledgements I gratefully acknowledge comment and suggestions from two anonymous reviewers. All errors and omissions remain my own responsibility. This research article is available in HIMALAYA, the Journal of the Association for Nepal and Himalayan Studies: https://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/himalaya/vol32/iss1/9 JOHN BRAY INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR LADAKH STUDIES READINGS ON ISLAM IN LADAKH: LOcaL, REGIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVES The influences of two major religions—Buddhism and Islam—are interwoven in Ladakhi history and contemporary society. However, by comparison with Buddhism, the study of Islam has often been neglected. This essay offers a reading guide as a basis for further study. It draws on a range of sources in Asian and European languages, including texts published locally in Ladakh, as well as academic monographs and articles in specialist international journals. The essay begins with a discussion of the key historical texts before looking more closely at Ladakh’s links with Central Asia, and the political and cultural impact of Islam in its relationship with Baltistan and Kashmir. The essay then examines the role of Ladakhi and Kashmiri Muslims in facilitating Ladakh’s diplomatic and commercial exchanges with central Tibet. It concludes with a review of recent studies on contemporary social and political developments. For three and a half centuries the Jamia Masjid focus while at the same time scanning much wider in Leh bazaar has borne witness to the presence of international horizons. Islam in Ladakh. In Kargil, the second-largest town of the region, the overwhelming majority of the STANDARD TEXTS AND EVOLVING population are Shia Muslims. Whereas Ladakh’s HISTORIOGRAPHIES Buddhists historically have looked to Tibet as a On the principle that one needs to look at Ladakh source of religious inspiration and higher learning, as a whole before examining particular facets of its its Muslims look west to Qom, Karbala and Mecca. history, it is essential to start with a review of the In recent years historians and social scientists key sources and the standard texts. In doing so, it have begun to take a closer look at many aspects of quickly becomes apparent that there are several Islam in the region, and three papers reflecting these historiographies of Ladakh, broadly defined by new research directions are included in this edition language, which overlap only in part. of Himalaya. Nevertheless, it remains true that the great bulk of scholarly writing on Ladakh focuses Historical sources on the region’s Buddhist history and culture. Much The single most important indigenous source is of the material on Ladakhi Muslims that does exist the La dvags rgyal rabs chronicle: this is a composite is scattered in obscure journal articles or rare books document dating back to the seventeenth century in a number of different languages. In this essay I that reflects the perspective of Ladakh’s Buddhist review a selection of the material that has appeared monarchy on the kingdom’s internal history as to date with a particular focus on historical sources well as its relationship with its neighbors. It affirms as they inform contemporary social and political the legitimacy of the ruling rNam rgyal dynasty developments. by linking it with Tibet’s ancient monarchy and The essay is based on two premises. The first highlighting its support for the Buddhist Dharma. is that the history of Islam and Buddhism in the Other key sources include royal decrees and region are interwoven to the extent that one cannot charters; blockprint biographies of senior Buddhist interpret the region as a whole without examining figures such as Stagtshang Raspa (sTag tshang ras pa, both. The second is that a proper understanding of 1574-1651), the founder of Hemis monastery; rock Ladakh requires us to be both intensely local in our inscriptions; and oral history, often expressed as READINGS ON ISLAMF INROM LA THEDak HE/DITORBRAY 13 folk-songs. Ladakhi sources can often be supplemented by Petech’s 1977 study is still the most widely-cited the historical records of neighboring regions, notably Tibet single-volume history of Ladakh, but now needs to be and Kashmir. supplemented by more recent scholarship in history as well as related disciplines. Ladakhi Histories (2005/2011), Western scholarship which I edited, is a collection of 23 research papers from The first British travellers to visit Ladakh were the East the International Association of Ladakh Studies (IALS), Indian Company veterinary surgeon William Moorcroft including contributions from historians, art historians, (1767-1825) and his assistant George Trebeck (1800-1825): linguists and anthropologists. they stayed in the region for nearly two years in 1820-1822, waiting in vain for permission to travel over the Karakoram Modern historical scholarship in Ladakhi/Tibetan to Yarkand. Their account, published posthumously in 1841, Historically, Ladakhi Buddhists, as well as a number provides an eyewitness view of Ladakh in its final years of Ladakhi Christians, have tended to write in a version of as an independent kingdom. Moorcroft had a keen eye for classical Tibetan, even though the spoken language differs economic and geographical detail, as well as the political widely from the written one, much as spoken Italian or intrigues of the Ladakhi court. Spanish differs from Latin. In India this written language is Alexander Cunningham’s Ladák, published in 1854, now widely known as “Bodhi” or “Bhoti.” marks the beginning of formal Western scholarship on the Joseph Gergan (Yo seb dGe rgan, 1878-1946) was arguably region. Cunningham visited Ladakh in 1846 and 1847 in his the first “modern” Ladakhi historian. Gergan was brought up capacity as a British military officer and went on to become by Moravian missionaries after his father’s death in 1890. In the first Director General of the Archaeological Survey of the early 1900s he worked as a Moravian schoolteacher, and India. His book is in effect a gazetteer, providing a systematic in 1920 was one of the first two Ladakhis to be ordained to the review of the region’s geography, topography and economics Christian ministry. He served his historical apprenticeship as well as its history. His historical analysis is drawn from with Francke, notably by finding and transcribing historical local documents, apparently including a version of the La documents, but then emerged as a major historian in his own dvags rgyal rabs, which had been summarised in Urdu for his right. However, his magnum opus, the Bla dvags rgyal rabs ’chi benefit. med gter, was not published until 1976, 30 years after his In the following decade the German scholar Emil death. His book reflects a careful evaluation of a broad range Schlagintweit published the Tibetan text of the La dvags ryal of texts. rabs (1866), together with an initial German translation. Gergan’s work has yet to be translated into English, The Moravian missionary doctor Karl Marx (1857-1891) although Petech drew on it in his Kingdom of Ladakh. Some of provided an improved translation in English (1891, 1894, the original documents that he cited—notably royal charters 1902), drawing on the advice of Tashi Stanphel (bKrashis and letters—are now available in an edition published by bstan ’phel), a senior lama from Stagna monastery. However, Dieter Schuh (2008). This is based on photographs of the Marx died of typhus before he was able to publish a definitive collection of S.S. Gergan, Yoseb’s son, in the 1970s and edition of the original text. includes Roman transliterations and German translations of Marx’s missionary successor August Hermann Francke the texts. (1870-1930) developed and expanded his earlier work, Tashi Ragbias (Bkra shis rab rgyas) is Ladakh’s leading drawing on folksongs and rock inscriptions as well as the contemporary historian. His Mar yul la dvags kyi sngon rabs La dvags rgyal rabs. Francke’s pioneering History of Western kun gsal me long zhes bya ba bzhugs so sgrig pa po [History Tibet (1907) is long out-dated in the light of more recent of Ladakh Called the Mirror Which Illuminates All] was research but remains influential in India because of its wide published in 1984. It includes a particular focus on Buddhist availability in modern reprint editions (under a variety of history, including the foundation stories of the various titles). His most substantial historical contribution is the monasteries in Ladakh. On a similar note, Jamyang Gyaltsen publication of the text and English translation of the La dvags (’Jam dbyangs rgyal mtshan) has written a history of Ladakhi rgyal rabs together a set of “minor chronicles” in the second monasteries (1995) that includes sections on the biographies volume of his Antiquities of Indian Tibet (1926). of major lamas as well as the history of each institution. The Italian scholar Luciano Petech in turn built on Francke’s earlier work in his Ph.D.