Rock Art: Ladakh

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Rock Art

Ladakh: A potential for an Open Museum of Rock Art part 1

By Tashi Ldawa, Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Reach Ladakh

Rock Art

Leh: Ladakh is getting more and more popular as a tourist destination. And why not: the peculiar landscape, the snow-capped mountains, the high altitude lakes, a different culture, the monasteries and so on make it an ideal tourist destination.

The rock art of Ladakh is one aspect which has a high potential for tourist attraction of a different nature altogether. Rock art is a heritage that we have inherited and many of these arts are more than 3-5 thousand years old. It is in fact the oldest monument to be found in Ladakh, far more than any monasteries. India is said to have third largest concentration of rock art in the world after Australia and Africa. Many of the rock art sites in the world, including India, have successfully tapped rock art as a tourist destination. The rock art of Ladakh (technically classified as petroglyphs) is so widespread throughout Ladakh that we can claim to have largest concentration of petroglyphs in India (if not world). In fact we feel Ladakh could serve as an open museum for rock art. More interestingly, there is a wide range in the subject and style to amaze any one. Many of the elements are Central Asian, while many resemble similarity with the ones found in Northern region of Pakistan and Tibet. So far we have discovered hundreds of sites, thousands of engraved rocks and tens of thousands of figures, throughout Ladakh.

While there are many universal messages in the rock art like celebration, ritual, tradition, hunting etc., yet many of the elements of rock art of Ladakh shows a rare exception in beauty, style and subject. Surely they display much more than archaeologist’s delight, it is worth a public display: for art or history. Given the fact of their antiquity, there is every scope of an open museum of rock art in Ladakh. But till anything is done, for the present, the message is “protect these rock art” they are part of our cultural heritage.

The collection of figure shows just a fraction of figures from different regions of Ladakh. I hope in future volumes I can write articles on rock art of Ladakh region-wise: keep watching.

Tashi Ldawa is an independent researcher on rock since last more than fifteen years. He has attended many national and international conferences on the subject and presently the only local expert on rock art. He is working for protection and conservation too. His book on rock art of Ladakh is likely to be published soon.