Leh History, India

Leh is an ancient city located in India.  All of the history of Leh revolves around the Palace that is built there.  In fact, this palace is really what the town of Leh consists of.  The palace is known as the palace of Leh which was built in the 1600s by the current king at the time, King Sengge Namgyal.  This town has more religious significance in history than anything.  The Leh Palace was actually built over a Sunny Muslim Mosque and this construction has created many controversies such as Hindu dominance over Islam or cohabitation between the two religions.

This mosque was built in the early 1600s before Leh Palace while the region was under the control of the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb.   The king of Leh was forced to build the mosque because if he did not, then the emperor had threatened him to invade the area and massacre the people there.  Therefore, under duress the king, King Deldan Namgyl built the mosque which still reflects the culture of Tibetan and Islamic culture.  During the reigning years of the King of Leh’s heir, Sengge Namgyal, he created Leh Palace which was also used as a fort in the case that the emperors troops wanted to evade.

The first two hundred years of life around Leh’s Palace prospered.  However in the middle of the 1800s the royal family left the palace and relocated to another palace in the Indus region, called Stok Palace.  The reason for leaving was because the Muslim Kashmiri soldiers invaded the palace.

Leh has many different cultural blends due to two reasons: foreign rulers and trading.  Today, if you visit a sight, what you see will not be one hundred percent Indian.  There are many international influences in this town from China, Tibet and Kashmir.  As Kashmir troops had invaded and the area had been under the Mughal Empire, various cultural marks such as language and architecture have blended with the natural habitant’s culture.  In addition, Leh was a great destination of stop over between trade routes from India to Tibet, China and Kashmir.