A comprehensive study of Ladakh's rock art is now available
Summary of thesis:
Ladakh is the largest, highest and westernmost region of the Himalayas. Although it belongs to India’s state of Jammu and Kashmir, it is located at the crossroads of Central Asia, China, Tibet and India. We may assume that this unique location resulted into a major historical importance. However Ladakh’s history prior the 15th century is rather fragmentary and legendary. Very limited archaeological researches have been conducted in this Himalayan region. In the light of successful rock art projects lead in Central Asia and in the northern areas of Pakistan, petroglyphs appeared as the most promising and easily available material to carry out the first systematic archaeological study of Ladakh. In the course of my PhD I gathered about 15, 000 petroglyphs scattered over 100 rock sites. A comparative analysis of zoomorphic and anthropomorphic representations shows that during the Bronze and Iron Ages (2500-300 BC) Ladakh shared thematic and stylistic traits with the Central! Asian steppes. Later on, at the beginning of the 1st millennium AD, several rock inscriptions in kharosthi and brahmi are firm testimonies that Ladakh was under the influence of the Indian cultural expansion. Then, Tibetan rock inscriptions in Ladakh datable to the second half of the first millennium provide evidence for the expansion of the Tibetan empire (7th-11th centuries) into the western regions. These inscriptions are frequently accompanied by engraved representations of Buddhist stūpa. The typological and comparative study of these enables us to better apprehend the introduction and diffusion of Buddhism into Ladakh. In summary my researches on the rock art of Ladakh allows for the first time to propose a secure cultural sequence of the region from Protohistory to the Medieval Period. It also demonstrates that the Himalayas have never been a barrier between Central Asia, the Indian subcontinent and the Tibetan plateau and that Ladakh always has been a cultural cro! ssroad.
Keywords: archaeology, history of art, rock art, petroglyph, engraving, carving, Ladakh, India, Central Asia, Tibet, Protohistory, Bronze Age, Iron Age, animal style, art of the steppes, Buddhism, architecture, stūpa, chorten
There are four volumes (IN FRENCH):
1/text
2/catalogue of rock art sites
3/catalogue of petroglyphs
4/appendix and images
Anyone interested in the subject is invited to contact Laurianne Bruneau via e-mail. A Pdf version is available.
e-mail: bruneaulaurianne@yahoo.com
Sonam Wangchok appointed teacher
The Previous Bakula Rinpoche sent Sonam Wangchok to Sri Lanka for higher studies and advised him to make sure that he would go back to Ladakh and work for the preservation and promotion of Himalayan Cultural Heritage. By keeping the words of the most Ven. Bakula Rinpoche, Dr Sonam Wangchok has started Himalayan Cultural Heritage Foundation (HCHF) in 2009 with the guidance of Prof. Geshe Konchok Wangdu who has later become the president of HCHF.
Most Venerable Previous Bakula Rinpoche, who passed away at the age of 86, was a distinctive Lama of great endowment and exceptional talent, statesman, and international diplomat of India. His support, passion and determination played an important role in the field of education to help the Ladakhi people to fight for their rights and sustain their own ancient Himalayan cultural heritage in the contentious political environment of the State of J&K.
In 1986, in appreciation of his distinguished services of high order to the nation, the President of India awarded him the nation’s second highest honour, “Padma Bhushan”. In 1990, he became the Ambassador of India to Mongolia and rendered his service for over 10 years not only as ambassador but also as a guiding spirit and for which he received “Polar Star” award from Mongolia.
To the delight of many, the identification of a two year old boy from Kyagar, Nubra was confirmed by His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama in 2008 as the 20th Bakula Rinpoche. With the advice of Ganden Tri Rinpoche, he was brought to Leh on 6th August 2010 and the religious ceremony of enthronement was held on 12th August 2010 where the Rinpoche formally took seat of Bakula at Pethup Gonpa. In this way, the Rinpoche starts his mission for the happiness and wellbeing of all sentient beings from where he left in his previous life. In order to teach him more languages and give him all-round education, both Prof Geshe Konchok Wangdu and Dr Sonam Wangchok serve as his teachers at the moment.
ANHS Fellowship Program
For more details click here.
Ladakh Flood update
ladakhflood.org provides facts and figures, an inventory of damaged infrastructure, relief operations and reconstruction and rehabilitation.
We are trying to get first hand detail from our members in Ladakh but communication in some areas is still problematic. We will post updates here as and when we receive them.
Call for Papers: Clarification
Call for Papers: 15th IALS Conference, Aberdeen, Scotland, 24–28 August 2011
Feedback from members after the Call for Papers was circulated seems to indicate some misunderstanding of the nature of the Conference, particularly its emphasis on a particular theme. As we tried to make clear in the original Call for Papers, we hope that the theme will be interpreted broadly, and will attract papers from a wide range of disciplines. To reinforce the point, please read the following clarification.
Responding to the Environment in Ladakh and the Western Himalayas
Throughout its history, the ruling powers, cultures and populations of Ladakh and the Western Himalaya have had to contend with difficult terrains, variable natural resources, and changing patterns of climate, disease and biodiversity, of which recent natural disasters such as this year’s Leh-area floods are merely one example. Both at a local and regional level, human responses to these changing conditions have helped to shape the society, economy and religions that we know today. Trade routes have shifted in response to shifts in rivers, the availability of passes and the vagaries of local climate. Villages and towns have expanded, contracted and been extinguished in response to the availability (or over-abundance) of water and the possibilities of agriculture and nomadism. Royal families, governments and religious and medical institutions have responded to the needs of populations struck by diseases, floods and earthquakes as much as they have to the possibilities of new products and trading conditions. These responses have included everything from the performance of rituals for both wealth and adversity, the development of medical institutions and practices, the provision of tax breaks, the negotiation of treaties and the siting and architecture of towns, palaces, and monasteries. In more recent times, the protection of archaeological and art-historical treasures have also focused minds on the questions of the region’s distinctive climatic conditions.
As well as being a standard IALS meeting with its usual range of papers, the 2011 conference in Aberdeen wishes to encourage participants to focus their regional expertise on the broad questions of (i) the actual nature and conditions of environment and landscape that influence life in the region, and (ii) how people respond and have responded to a changing and often extreme climate and landscape, at a social, economic, religious and political level.
In this regard, the conference can include papers aimed at understanding this issue in three frames: firstly, the historical frame; secondly, the conditions and responses presently at work in the region; and thirdly, the possibilities for the future. It is envisaged that addressing this issue in its fullness will require expertise from all fields of academic study— anthropology, archaeology, art-history, epidemiology, history, hydrology, medicine, political science, religious studies, sociology —whilst also maintaining that distinctive interaction between international and local perspectives and scholarship that is, and always has been the hallmark of the International Association for Ladakh Studies.