Leh

Leh, the capital of Ladakh, stands in a high valley near the Indus. The palace of the Namgyal kings rises above its clustered houses, and below it lies the bazaar, where traders crossing the mountains between Tibet, Kashmir and Central Asia met. Salt, grain, pashmina wool, silk and Banaras brocade passed through its markets, while caravans left for Yarkand by way of the Karakoram Pass, a journey of nearly a month. The town's Buddhist monuments and its Muslim merchants showed its place at a meeting point of Himalayan routes.

Under King Sengge Namgyal in the seventeenth century, Ladakh extended its power into western Tibet. His reign saw the building of Leh Palace, a massive royal residence above the town, and the overthrow of the neighbouring kingdom of Guge around 1630. In 1679 a Tibetan and Mongol army sent by the government of the Fifth Dalai Lama invaded Ladakh, and King Delegs Namgyal held out with help from the Kashmir governor of the Mughals until peace came in 1684. The Kashmiri price was heavy, and among its terms a mosque was built at the upper end of the bazaar below the palace. The Namgyal dynasty continued to rule Ladakh until the army of Zorawar Singh conquered it in 1834.