books about Ladakh

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Guidebooks Useful brochures General books
  • Insight Ladakh
    by P.K. Das, Tashi Phunchuk
    Ratna Voyages Publications, Leh-Ladakh, 2009

  • Ladakh. Crossroads of High Asia.
    by Janet Rizvi
    Oxford University Press, 2007; ISBN: 978-0-19-564546-0

  • Ladakh. Land of Magical Monasteries.
    by Bob Gibbons, Siân Pritchard-Jones
    Pilgrims Publishing, 2006; ISBN: 81-7769-488-X

  • Amazing Land Ladakh. Places, People and Culture.
    by Sanjeev Kumar Bhasin
    Indus Publishing Company, 2006; ISBN: 81-7387-186-8

  • Birds and Mammals of Ladakh
    by Otto Pfister
    Oxford University Press, 2004; ISBN: 019565714-4
     
    A complete work on mammals and birds inhabiting Ladakh. It contains description of appearance and behaviour of each animal and information on its distribution in the region. Colour photographs for all of the species.

  • Getting started in Ladakhi. A phrasebook for Learning Ladakhi.
    by Rebecca Norman
    Melong Pblications of Ladakh, 2001

  • Ladakhi Kitchen. Traditional and Modern Recipes From Ladakh.
    by Gabriele Reifenberg
    Melong Publications of Ladakh, 1998

  • Ladakh. Land and People.
    by Prem Singh Jina
    Indus Publishing Company, 1996; ISBN: 81-7387-057-8

  • Ancient Futures. Learning from Ladakh.
    by Helena Norberg-Hodge
    Oxford University Press, 1991; ISBN: 978-0-19-563196-8
    external link: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helena_Norberg-Hodge
     
    It would be a simplification if I say it's a book about Ladakh. The description of the region and ongoing change of its culture and society in recent years, serves the author as a pretext for a discussion on the meaning of development, progress, education, ecology. Is the literacy rate and Gross National Product a real indicator of peoples welfare? Does our happiness grow as we gain access to modern technology? Do we have a real freedom of choice of goods since countries around the world tend to produce the same instead of cultivating local specials? Same beverages, food, style of dress, architecture - regardless the tradition and environmental conditions. Don't we - living freely on our own, independently - loose connections with the others and become lonely?
    Helena Norberg-Hodge opposes problems of western societies with traditional life of the Ladakhis that used to be quite free of them. The problem is that Ladakh develops in the western-style direction without the people realizing its dangers.
    The author describes Ladakh as a land of harmony, where people have learned to live respecting and caring for its limited resources. This harmony has been shaken by the development of roads network that had opened widely the region to the outside world. The distorted image of the western world brought by tourists and television undermines self-confidence of the Ladakhis and shakes their belief in virtue of their own culture.
    Understanding the old Ladakh - as it was before wide exposure to the western world since late 70-ties - can help us discover it and explore it responsibly and wisely. Reading the book before the travel to Ladakh will help us to make the trip and our contacts with the Ladakhis a mutual lesson rather then a spread of disturbance on an ancient, wise culture.
    comment by Radek Kucharski on 2009-12-14 02:23:53

  • The Guide of The Buddhist Monasteries and Royal Castles of Ladakh
    by Thupstan Paldan
    published by Dorjee Tsering, 1976