The decline of the Namgyal dynasty began with the familiar and tragic emergence of family intrigues, succession disputes and rulers who were unfit, mentally and physically, to face the challenge of the Sikh-Dogra alliance in the south. Kashmir came under Sikh rule in 1819. Both Ranjit Singh and his powerful vassal, Gulab Singh of Jammu, saw the importance of the Pashmina trade which had been diverted by the British to their area of control, via Kinnaur. This had robbed the Kashmir shawl-maker of his source of raw material. To gain control over this lucrative trade, Gulab Singh opened the Kishtwar trail and planned to invade Ladakh, in Ranjit Singh's name.
William Moorcroft, an English army veterinary doctor, in the course of his travels from 1820-22, had pointed out to Tshe-Spal Namgyal the danger of Dogra ambitions. Neither the Ladakhi king nor the British government in India heeded Moorcroft's intelligence. The Dogra army marched through Ladakhi territories via Zanskar and captured Leh. In the winter of 1841, Zorawar Singh, a general in Gulab Singh's army, extended the scope of the campaign to include central Tibet. The attraction was the mercantile centre of Gartok that was the source of the Pashmina trade. With the helpful freezing of the river in winter, the temptation to bring Gartok within the Dogra domain was irresistible and, of course, there was the added lure of the fabulous wealth of the Tibetan monasteries. Also Visit - Leh Ladakh Tours Pursuing his ambitions, Zorawar Singh conquered western Tibet up to Taklakot when he began to make a series of strategic errors, as a consequence of which he found himself entrenched at a height of 4,500 meters in severe weather with supply lines to his base disrupted. Besides, Tibet was not facing him alone; the Chinese empire stood behind its Tibetan vassals. Though this was the last of the famous campaigns of a remarkable soldier, and the death of Zorawar Singh multiplied the difficulties confronting his forces, later Dogra successes put an end to the common belief that the conquest of Ladakh had been entirely due to him. The Dogra incursions ended Ladakh's status as an independent kingdom with the treaty of Leh in 1842. Tibet recognized the Dogras as the rulers of Ladakh and jigmet Namgyal became a vassal king, subsequently known as the Jagirdar of Stok. Even today, the royal family is resident in the Stok Palace, where tourists can visit the family museum and perhaps get a glimpse of the Gyal-mo, the queen. In the flux of Anglo-Sikh relations, who were guided by British interests in Punjab and beyond, the Dogras continued to administer the districts of Leh and Baltistan. From this time, Ladakh was no longer allowed to remain a blank space on the map of the region. Members of British expeditions and explorers wrote about journeys to Ladakh in the late nineteenth century and the early twentieth century. As a consequence, the Jesuits set up their first mission in 1885, which introduced a new value system into the Buddhist citadel. The Moravians, who established a permanent mission, have been credited with setting up the first allopathic dispensary and the First European school, without which the Western process of modernization could not have been contemplated. Today, the modern professionals in Ladakh are descendants of those families who were converted in the first dynamic changes that took place in our times. Also Visit – Kashmir tour packages As British rule in India disintegrated, Ladakh too suffered the fate of Partition in 1947. With the accession of Kashmir to India, by the last Dogra king, Hari Singh, Pakistan went to war and captured a strategic position in the subcontinent. This territory has been a source of constant friction between the two neighbors due to the military importance of the region. It was only in 1950 that the highlands of Sonamarg were linked with the Ladakh plateau by road, integrating it with India, while its age-old ties with arid Sinkiang remain severed. In 1962, the Nubra valley became a severed. In 1962, the Nubra valley became a permanent Army camp, reinforcing these links. This makes Ladakh's socio-cultural institutions sensitive to encroachment, which follows from the changes taking place in the rest of the country. Ladakh is now a backward district of India — one of the largest — recently further sub-divided into the districts of Leh and Kargil. Gilgit has remained in Pakistan as a part of Occupied Kashmir and the Ladakhi people cut off from their history. But they jealously guard their identity, and neither Pakistan nor India has been able to assimilate them entirely. For more information on Namgyal Dynasty Falls of Leh Ledakh contact Swan Tours one of the leading travel agents in India.
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10/7/2017 05:34:20 am
Tour Israel and visit the Palmach Museum in Tel Aviv. Learn the history of the State of Israel in this interactive museum visit to the past.
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