Tourism and culture combine in Ladakh thanks to major policy push by Central government

Monsoon clouds do not reach Ladakh. But roads and airplanes do. For long they carried troops and supplies. More recently, they have also been carrying tourists both Indians and foreigners.For even longer though, hardy highland men and their yaks and ponies have crossed these mountains plying their trades on the silk route to Tibet, China and beyond. Now, as a matter of declared policy, the Government of India is carrying to this remote Himalayan desert at 11,000 ft above sea level, a rather self-conscious brand of cultural nationalism.Talking to media persons on the eve of the Sindhu Darshan festival at Leh last week, Union Minister for Culture and Tourism Anant Kumar declared, "The security of Ladakh lies not in its military isolation but in its cultural integration with the larger Indian diversity." This profound, if belated, realisation dawned on the Government thanks to two unrelated events. THE TRADITIONAL AND THE SYNTHETIC: Thiksey Gompa cradled on a rocky hillsideOne was the rising aspirations of the Ladakhis to get a Union territory status freeing them of the turbulent Kashmiri political dominance. "We are a colonised people," insists Thupstan Chhewang, chairman of the Ladakh Hill Development Council (LHDC), much to the discomfiture of Kumar who did not (understandably) wish to be seen as a silent supporter of the Ladakhi demand for autonomy from Kashmir.The second was Union Home Minister L.K. Advani's personal discovery in 1997 that the river Sindhu (Indus) from which India derives its name flows some 500 km through India before crossing over to Pakistan to meet the Arabian Sea.As a Sindhi, Advani was deeply moved and wisely decided to highlight the symbolic and cultural value of the mighty river by holding the Sindhu Darshan festival and constructing a ghat on its banks at Shey, a few kilometres beyond Leh town. THE TRADITIONAL AND THE SYNTHETIC: Girls from North Zone Cultural Centre dance to the Vande Mataram on the Sindhu's banksThus the three-day Sindhu Darshan festival funded and organised by the Central Government along with the LHDC is currently India's most publicised and power-pushed cultural event. Laden with too many metaphors and messages it is far more important to the Government than the other niche cultural tourism festivals like Khajuraho, Elephanta or Konark. The only new cultural extravaganza that comes close to this one is the Brahmaputra Festival in the Northeast, again promoted by the Central Government for similar reasons.The idea of celebrating and worshipping a major river is not new. Rivers such as the Indus, the Ganga, the Narmada and the Kaveri have cradled civilisations for millennia and carry in their meandering flow the racial memoriesof the people inhabiting the regions. They are not only the lifelines of agriculture and prosperity but have also been, in the not-too-distant past, popular means of transportation and travel.TO LADAKH WITH LOVE570 per cent increase in domestic tourists since 1998.Big boost to tourism through Central programmes and grants.Advani, Kumar and Farooq Abdullah at the newly constructed Sindhu ghatIn this age travel and tourism are means of commerce and development. Although Ladakh was opened to tourism over two decades ago, till just three years ago only 3,000 Indian tourists visited it annually. Last year the number jumped to 20,000 and this year with the massive promotion of the destination by the India Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC) and the Ministry of Tourism the numbers are expected to swell much more. The number of foreign tourists was 13,000 in 1999 and rose to 19,500 last year.However, the Sindhu Darshan festival itself cannot be credited for the dramatic spurt in tourism to Ladakh. Unimaginatively planned and poorly executed, the festival comprises sundry folk dances put up by the zonal cultural centres and highly contrived "ballets" (a peculiar Indianism for dance-dramas) on the themes of national integration andor peace and non-violence are any aesthete's nightmare. Semi-political jamborees with too many speeches and bureaucratic rituals only serve to put off the cultural tourist and bore the local populace stiff.The spurt in tourism has been due to more prosaic factors like improving the accessibility to Ladakh by increasing the number of flights to Leh (from thrice a week to two flights a day during high season including a Jetair flight) and the support given to local Ladakhis to run guest houses, hotels and tours. The bus journey from Manali is the preferred land route even if it is long and arduous involving crossing the high altitude Rohtang pass and a night stop at Keylong. AN ANCIENT BEAT: Buddhist monks in their colourful costumes recite mantras at the inauguration of the Sindhu ghatLadakh is the land of Buddhist monasteries and the more interesting festivals there are the myriad local festivals like the one held at the Hemis monastery. Amid all the rhetoric about "unity in diversity", Chhewang rightly pointed out, "There is no need to underline and present Indian cultural diversity in Ladakh as Ladakh is a crucible of cultural diversity anyway."Besides, he says that the coming of tourism has revived local traditions and Ladakhis are now proud of their customs and costumes, if only to display them to tourists. Over the years, Ladakh has become the summer destination for the backpacker foreign tourist in a big way. Goa in winters and Ladakh for the summer seems to be the tourist trail. Tiny as it may be, Leh has Italian restaurants, German bakeries, even a Swedish vegetable shop. Guest houses and hotels employ Goan cooks, Malayali bellboys and Bihari labourers for the season. So the atmosphere is amazingly cosmopolitan and the range of cuisine eclectic.Distant and difficult, Ladakh is nonetheless a brilliant gem in India's crown. It has to be kept that way.Published By: AtMigration Published On: Jun 18, 2001 00:00 IST--- ENDS ---

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Tourism and culture combine in Ladakh thanks to major policy push by Central government

Political expediency, tourism and culture combine in Ladakh thanks to a major policy push by the Central Government.

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