Oct 22 2022
Hi there,
It been more then a month since I shared last write-up.Today I would like to discuss something about ‘Culture’ which had been ringing up in the air during last two weeks here in Leh?
There was also the celeberation of the Lladakh Festival Year 2022’ from Oct 13 to 16 2022 here after the dissipation of the dreaded Covid-19 Pandemic.
Then came the 96th Birth anniversary of our late father Tashi Rabgias le the renowned scholar and academician of Ladakh during the 20th and the early 21st century, on Oct 17th 2022 who truly was an gifted writer, poet, historian, academician and a thinker.
He would often state that it was the language which is the basis of ones’s culture and ethos. In our case the language being Tibetan or locally Ladakhi or Bhoti regionally in usage along the Himalayan tracks from Ladakh to Arunachal Pradesh of our great nation India or Bharat or Hindustan.
And culture also has to do with history or the past influences of one’s region in our case that of the great Tibetan emperor sRongtsan sGampo who ruled Tibet in the 7th century C.E having extended his empire in ten eight directions by sending his men never to return but to serve the benovalent Tibetan emperor.
Skilde Nyimagon of Ngari artist’s impression
In Ladakh his men arrived and further moved in the west and put up their post in Gilgit. It is said that descendant of these people can be traced in these region also in the land of the Baltis.
The script invented by Thonmi Sambhota sent by the Tibetan emperor to India and had been deciphered from the Devanagari script and Sanskrit. So it provided thirty ‘Consonants’ and four vowels. Of course he further brought in the ‘Stakjuks’ or the Grammar.
The period that is 7th century C.E also led to the ordination of seven Buddhist monks in Lhasa Tibet the beginning of Buddha Dharma and was confined to to the royal courts and the supporters of the emperor.
However, the dominance of Bon belief was still very strong, which included animal sacrifice and use of occult and Shaman practices. However, it is also said that the emperor like the Moghul King Akbar had his ‘Now Ratan’ or ‘Nine Jewels’ or the nine extraordinary Ministers.
One came from Ladakh who became famous by the name of ‘Lonpo Rigpachan’ or ‘Intelligent Minister (Ref. aryul Ladakhs Ki Nyonrabs Konsel Melong Zheschava Zhuk So’ by Tashi Rabgias. He belonged to the village of Shargol in Kargil District.
That made our history interesting as there were individuals who came from nooks and corner of Ladakh contributing their legacy as time move further. It took almost a century before Budhhism began to make its mark in Tibet, that is, in the 8th century C.E.
Coming back to the term ‘Culture’, the Oxford dictionary meaning states like this,‘ The way of life of a people, including their attitudes, values, beliefs, arts, sciences, modes of perception and habits of thought and activity’.
So the meaning is whole and it touches all the frame of one’s being but the challenge is the technology which though being very helpful yet very engaging often on the wrong side of things. If only that is taken care of all will be fine but it is easier said than done?
And since language being the basis of ‘Culture’, therefore, in our case it had to do with Tibetan script which came from Devnagari script hence of Indian origin what HH the 14th Dalai Lama states as the ‘Nalanda School of Thought’ which comes from the great canonical treatise of ‘Kagyur’ or the basic teachings of the present Shakyamuni Buddha and the commentaries on the basic teachings by later Buddhist Maha-Panditas in the ‘Tangyur’.
Everything is stored in these vast literature which the young people should study and share what they learnt from them. Bye for now.