Trans-Himalayan Caravans Merchant Princes and Peasant Traders in Ladakh

by Rizvi, Janet

• ISBN13: 9780195648553
• ISBN10: 0195648552
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-05-11
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

This book documents the extraordinarily complex pattern of trade upon which the pre-Independence economy of Ladakh largely depended. Although the trans-Himalayan traffic in subsistence commodities in other parts of the Himalaya has been researched, that in Ladakh has until now remained almostentirely undocumented. The book is based mainly on oral evidence; this is related to documentary sources ranging from the seventeenth to the twentieth century. This intriguing account of Ladakhi trade is spiced with enough personal details of the traders at all levels, to demonstrate that trade' issomething more than a matter of routes and commodities, prices and rates of profit; it is an activity carried out by real human beings, profoundly colouring their entire way of life.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
Prologue	p. 1
Introduction. Silk, Spices and Salt: The Trades of Inner Asia	p. 3
The Routes	p. 22
The Pashm Trade	p. 50
The Shamma	p. 69
Zanskar and the Suru Valley	p. 116
The Entrepreneurs	p. 142
The Leh - Lhasa Trade	p. 159
The Trans-Karakoram Trade: A Long History	p. 182
The Trans-Karakoram Trade Remembered	p. 209
The Kiraiyakash	p. 241
The Old Order Changeth ...	p. 261
Weights and Measures	p. 275
The Value of the Rupee	p. 279
Figures Relating to the Trade in Pashm	p. 283
Figures Relating to the Trans-Karakoram Trade	p. 290
Toosh and the Tibetan Antelope	p. 297
Glossary	p. 300
Sources	p. 306
Notes and References	p. 317
Index	p. 347
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