Along Ladakh’s Silk Route Landscape – Travel – Culture – Memory

India’s high altitude border region, Ladakh, is best known for its extraordinary landscape where the bare rock of the Himalayas appears to thrust through flat expanses of desert to create a dazzling backdrop of peaks and crags. The rivers Indus and Zanskar meander through the valleys of Ladakh, while a complex system of irrigation channels brings water from the glaciers to feed oases where human settlement becomes possible. This environment is famously punctuated by man-made structures such as mane (prayer) walls, chortens (stupas), carvings in the rock face, wayside shrines, and other distinctively Ladakhi cultural markers. Concealed within this landscape are numerous stories of flood myths, spirits that reside in rocks, and hidden valleys inhabited by fairies. The impression of an organic fusion between the land and these features reflects the technologies and aesthetics of Ladakh’s inhabitants.

At the same time, for centuries, Ladakh has been a place for the transmission of goods and ideas from many different locations as people traversed the landscape for trade, pilgrimage, and exploration. Though Ladakh was never a part of the formal Silk Route that went from China, across Central Asia to Italy, it was an important feeder to the southern route. It was through Leh that goods came up from the plains of India, and those from China and Sinkiang came down to Ladakh before making their onward journeys. 
 
This event of exhibits, music, panel discussions and food explores ideas of mobility, transmission of culture and exchange of knowledge, linking them to past practices and traditions of oral literature, folklore, songs, music, cuisine, material and visual culture. Showing how both tangible and intangible heritage have survived over the centuries, and speak both of the past and the present.

The exhibition presents a glimpse into this world in Ladakh, from paintings at Alchi Monastery to archival images, textiles and works by contemporary artists Jigmet Angmo, Tashi Namgial, Chemat Dorje and Tsering Motup Siddho. Pankaj Sharma’s Syah and Nilza Angmo’s Alchi Kitchen draw on Ladakhi-inspired cuisine, using local ingredients and recipes. While Dashugs derives elements from Ladakhi folksongs in their music. Amongst the speakers, Jigmat Couture talks about his pioneering work with Ladakhi textiles and Sapna Batra presents the work of Kashmir’s textile artisans. Noorjahan Chunka and Tsering Motup Siddho talk about art conservation and contemporary art in Ladakh. Tsewang Norbu and Khayal Ladakhi bring insights into Ladakhi music and its many genres. Fayaz Ahmad Dar and Tsewang Namgail look at sustainable travel and tourism for the region, and how it can be more community-based. As you journey across Ladakh’s cultural landscape, tread lightly as you imagine the land and its many offerings.