Ladakh is a land like no other. Bounded by two of
the world's mightiest mountain ranges, the Great Himalaya and the
Karakoram, it lies athwart two other, the Ladakh range and the Zanskar
range. Ladakh lies at altitudes ranging from about 9,000 feet (2750m)
at Kargil to 25,170 feet (7,672m) at Saser Kangri in the Karakoram.
For all its seeming inaccessibility, Ladakh's position at the centre of a network
of trade routes traditionally kept it in constant touch withthe outside world.
From Chinese Central Asia,the mighty Karakoram range was breached at the Karakoram
pass, a giddy 18,350 feet (5,600m).
The trail from Yarkand crossed five other passes, of which the most feared was
the glacier, encumbered Saser-la, north of Nubra.
Travellers from Tibet could take one of two main routes. From the central part
of the country, the Tsang-po valley, they could pass the holy sites of Kailash-Mansarovar
and reach Fartok, on a tributary of the upper Indus, from where they followed
the river down to Leh.
Trade with the pashm producing areas of western Tibet flowed by a more northerly
route, taking in the village of Rudok, a few miles into Tibet, and from there
across the 18,300 feet (5,578m ) Chang-la to the Indus, and so to Leh.
Baltistan, joined administratively with Ladakh for 100 years, was linked to
it either via the Indus up to its confluence with the Suru-Shingo river, and
on up to Kargil; or by the Chorbat-la pass over the Ladakh range, the trail
dropping down to the Indus 40 km below Khalatse, and following the river up
to Leh.
The two main approaches toLadakh from south of the Himalaya are roughly the
same as today's motor roads from Srinagar and Manali.
The merchants and pilgrims who made up the majority of travellers in the premodern
era, travelled on foot or horseback, taking about 16 days to reach Srinagar;
though a man in hurry, riding non-stop and with changes of horse arranged ahead
of time all along the route, could do it in as little as three days.
The mails, carried in relays by runners stationed every four miles or so, took
four or five days. That was before the wheel as a means of transport was introduced
into Ladakh, which happened only when the Srinagar- Leh motor-road was constructed
as recently as the early 1960s.
Ladakh Ancient Routes, Discover Ladakh Reservation
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