The growth of Ladakh language and literature essay 300 words
Answers
The Growth of Ladakhi Language and Literature
Ladakh, because of its environmental situation and its cultural diversity, is known by various names which in many ways give a good explanation of regional conditions. The most prominent among the names given to it by local scholars are: the land of passes, the land of lamas, the red land, among the popular names given to it by Western scholars are: Little Tibet and Western Tibet. Similarily, Ladakh has a rich tradition of language and literature, which historically dates back to the 7th century A.D. As in the case of the land, the people also have known the language by various names, the main ones being Tibetan, Bodhi or Ladakhi. Politically, Ladakh was an independent state dating from the 10th century A.D. The kings of Ladakh succeeded in keeping this independence until the conquest of the forces of Maharaja Gulab Singh of Jammu under the headship of General Zorawar Singh in 1834. The first King of Ladakh, Palgigon was a descendant of the King Skilde Nimagon (957- 1000). Similarly, his subjects were Buddhist even at that time. He gave full support to the practice of religion and the development of language and literature. ln this way the whole region became a hub of Mahayana Buddhism and Ladakh played a very important role in the growth of all aspects of Mahayana Buddhist literature and culture.
According to a popular Ladakhi oral tradition, Rigpachan the able minister of King Srongtsan Gampo of the 7th century, was a Shergol-born Ladakhi. It is recorded that during this period this minister was very active and played a big role in sending Thonmi Sambhota, the inventor of the Tibetan script, to Kashmir for his studies. Similarly, in the field of literature, Ladakhis were very active even in the 10th century A.D. Among the noticeable Ladakhis were Zanskar Lotsawa Phakspa Sherab and his pupil Balti Lotsawa. It is a fact that their translation works and original writings were preserved in the Tangyur canon (the Tibetan collection of commentaries to the Buddhist teachings). However, on political grounds Ladakh and Baltistan had many battles until Baltistan became a district of Ladakh during the Dogra reign. Once, the king of Ladakh, Jamyang Namgyal reached Skardu in the course of a war. In Skardu he was arrested by the forces of the Chief of Baltistan and imprisoned. During the imprisonment the Ladakhi king met the Chief’s daughter and they fell in love. The Chief of Skardu freed Jamyang Namgyal, and permitted his daughter, Khatoon, to marry him. While sending the couple to Ladakh, it is said that the Chief of Skardu also sent a team of musicians who later settled in the Leh area.5 lt is believed that many of the contemporary Ladakhi musical instruments derive their origin from Baltistan. Later Queen Khatoon gave birth to the greatest King of Ladakh, Singge Namgyal (1590-1620). Similarly Tibet-born Staktsang Raspa who founded Hemis Gonpa and Chimre gonpa in the 16th century A.D. travelled as far as Mecca, wrote several books including his tour diary of which the master copy is preserved in Hemis gonpa. For an early Western confirmation of the nearly undistinguishable nature of Ladakhi and Tibetan, we can look to the example of Csoma de Körös the Western pioneer of Tibetan studies. Csoma never went to Tibet during his research; what he learnt was taught to him by his Ladakhi teachers. Despite this, he did not describe the language as Ladakhi. It is clear that he did not do so because he did not detect any major cultural or literary gap between Ladakh and Tibet as far as the written language and the scholary culture are concerned.
Csoma was not interested with popular culture and spoken dialects. Otherwise, Csoma might have described his dictionary as, “Ladakhi-English”. Along with the widespread use of classical Tibetan in religious and lay literature, there are definite variances in the spoken dialects of Ladakh and Tibet, as well as within Ladakh itself, For example, the present population of the Kargil district of Ladakh speaks the Purik dialect which is basically identical to Balti. The present population of eastern Ladakh or Changthang, also has its own dialect, called byang-skad. Geographically, Changthang is the closest to Tibet of all the districts of Ladakh, but its dialect is considered the most difficult in Ladakh. Similarly, the northern part of Ladakh, Nubra, and the southern part of Ladakh, Zanskar, have their own dialects within the Ladakhi language. During the early part of the Dogra era, Lama Tshultim founder of Rizong monastery and Samtanling gonpa in Nubra and the greatest scholar of the age, and Lama Tashi Tamphel were active in firming Buddha’s religion and in the revival of literary activities in the country.
Hope it was helpful for you
Please mark it Brainlist Answer