Beyond the Pir Panjal; life among the mountains and valleys of Kashmir . eld of battlestrewn with primitive weapons, armour and baggage. In return for this aid the King of Ladakh had to promiseto become a Mussulman, build a mosque at Leh and to giveKashmir the monopoly of the wool trade. Unfortunately assoon as the Moghuls had returned to Kashmir, the Mongolsagain descended and King Delegs had to buy them off next byagreeing to pay yearly tribute. Leh, the capital of Ladakh, is situated 20 milesfurther up the Indus Valley. It is a town in the desert(Plate 38). The desert, however, is not a pla
Beyond the Pir Panjal; life among the mountains and valleys of Kashmir . eld of battlestrewn with primitive weapons, armour and baggage. In return for this aid the King of Ladakh had to promiseto become a Mussulman, build a mosque at Leh and to giveKashmir the monopoly of the wool trade. Unfortunately assoon as the Moghuls had returned to Kashmir, the Mongolsagain descended and King Delegs had to buy them off next byagreeing to pay yearly tribute. Leh, the capital of Ladakh, is situated 20 milesfurther up the Indus Valley. It is a town in the desert(Plate 38). The desert, however, is not a plain but a slopingvalley surrounded by barren mountains, and with the greenmargin of cultivation stretching only just so far into the aridwastes around, as irrigation can be carried from the streamupon which the life of Leh depends. Twelve miles behindLeh, the valley is closed in by a snowy range, which iscrossed by the Khardong Pass, 17,400 feet above sea-leveland 6000 feet higher than Leh. This is the route to theShayok, Nubra valley and Yarkand. Below Leh, the valley. 37- VIEW FKOM THE PALACE, LEH. To face p. 191. THE UPPER INDUS VALLEY 191 opens out into a fan-shaped expanse of desert extendingdown four and a half miles to the Indus River. Owing tothe extraordinary clearness of the atmosphere the distancelooks much less. Close to the river there is an isolated rockyhill the upper part of which is terraced with the white build-ings of the monastery of Spittag. This, which was built byKing Lde under the influence of Tsongkapa, was the first ofthe reformed monasteries. Later on others of the same sectwere founded by subsequent kings. One of these, TrigtseMonastery, 12 miles further up the Indus Valley, is placedin a very commanding situation on the top of a rocky peak(Plate 39). The view from Leh across the Indus is magnificent(Plate 37). In the distance, but looking quite near, is a lineof snows culminating in a peak over 20,000 feet in prevailing colour of the numer
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectmountai, bookyear1912
