- Festivals: Festivals in Ladakh are a much awaited affair throughout India as people flock the plateau to witness the merry making. These are an attraction for tourists from India as well as from abroad. All the festivals are spread throughout the year with no particular month dominating the calendar as the festival month. Talking about the celebrations, native people and residents of Ladakh celebrate the festivals with great fervour and zeal. Mask dances are a very important part of these festivals in which monks clad in colourful robes and big imposing masks perform dramatic dances making depictions by gestures and body postures. The most popular of all the festivals is the Hemis festival which is observed either in the latter half of June or first half of July.
- Ethnic mix: Ethnically, Ladakh boasts of a rich diversity. There are people having different racial or cultural ties but all of them live together in cooperation and harmony. Precisely speaking, the native people of Ladakh are Indo-Aryans who migrated in the Indian subcontinent in 1500 BC. Tibetan people dominate the Central area of Ladakh and Muslim people are spread over the eastern part and Nubra Valley. Also, due to close proximity with Afghanistan, the western part has a considerable size of Afghan population. Despite of Indo-Aryans being the native people here, population that has migrated from Tibetan plateau now actually dominates the area.
- Buddhist culture: People of Ladakh majorly follow Buddhist culture because Tibetan population resides in the region dominantly. Buddhism as we know is one of the most celebrated religions across the world with about 7 to 8 percent of the world population as its follower. Buddhist culture is very colourful as myriad colours flash up in the traditional mask dances taking place at the gompas. Also, each colour is symbolic and is attached with certain meaning. This gives us the idea that colours keep very much importance in Buddhism. Colourful Buddhist culture can also be de-codified in the way that it does not discriminate on any basis, be it social position or sex (as Buddhism preaches that anyone can achieve nirvana regardless of social standing or gender).
- Art & Architecture: Ladakh being host to a number of ethnicities and it being the convergence point of influences from Tibetan, Muslim (from Kashmir), Hindu culture from the plains in Northern India etc makes art and architecture here praise worthy. Buddhist monasteries and stupas look picture perfect and their ornamentation is also a subject of appreciation. Apart from this, mural paintings done in innumerable colours and castle architecture of Ladakh are fields of extensive study and research among noted historians and art analysts.
Having known so much about Ladakhi culture, we are sure that you must be trying to picturise it in your mind. Touring the place will be a good idea, we suggest then. So what are you waiting for? Book your India holiday tour now with us to explore its colourful culture in person!
