Zanskar
Zanskar ( Tibetan ཟངས་ དཀར་ Wylie zangs dkar , on older maps also Zaskar ) is an area in the western part of the Himalaya Mountains. As Tehsil , it belongs to the Kargil District and thus to the Union Territory of Ladakh . It is a formerly independent Buddhist kingdom and is now part of India .
geography
The area is between 3,500 and 7,000 meters above sea level, on the " roof of the world ". The area has an area of around 7,000 km². At the last population census in 1971, 6,886 people lived here; in 2005 the population is estimated at around 10,000. Zanskar is accessible about seven months a year. During the harsh winter, however, the population is almost completely cut off from the outside world. Only one way over the frozen river of the same name, which is called Chadar in winter, then connects the country with the rest of the world.
A well-known trekking tour takes just under three weeks from Lamayuru monastery over several high passes into the Zanskar Valley with the main town of Padum and on over the Shingo La to Darcha .
Historical meaning
In Zanskar, the Hungarian explorer Alexander Csoma de Kőrös learned the Tibetan language with the help of the lama Sangye Phuntsog in 1823 as one of the first Europeans after Johannes Jahrig . Within 16 months he compiled a Tibetan-English dictionary and grammar in the monastery of Zangla. With this, Csoma opened up Tibetan culture to the West and established the scientific discipline of Tibetology .
literature
- Nana Ziesche: Winter in Zanskar , Yangla Press, Hamburg 2015, ISBN 978-3-9816247-1-7 .
- Edward Fox: The man who went to heaven. A Hungarian in Tibet , Wagenbach, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-8031-2578-1 .
- Michel Peissel: Zanskar. The Hidden Kingdom , EPDutton, New York 1979, ISBN 0-525-24030-6 .
