MAGIC LADAKH. By " Ganpat " (Major M. L. A.
Gompertz). Illustrated. (Seeley, Service. 21s.) - The State of Ladakh lies in Eastern Kashmir, and, if not exactly on the roof of the world, at all events occupies a distinguished position among the attics. It is a region well enough known to explorers, for its capital town of Leh is a favourite jumping-off place for Tibet, and to sportsmen who go there to shoot ovis ammon and the scarce snow-leopard, but to_ the general public the country is not quite so familiar. So in a pleasantly written book Ganpat ' sets out to show " that Ladakh holds a vast amount of fascination-the charm of wild-hills and of wide Spaces, of snow-capped peaks and great rock gorges, of quaint people, quaint customs and unfamiliar animals. ' This attractive volume has much to tell us of the hospitable lamas and their monasteries plastered on the rock faces of the gaunt hills, of the abbots who are reincarnations of Buddha, of the national beverage of buttered tea, and of the Ladakhi himself and especially herself, for in polyandrous Ladakh the men are completely underneath the woman's " extremely capable thumb." A feminist paradise indeed. Though the Ladakhi doesn't wash (few hill-people do), poverty is unknown and no child is ever unwanted.
Previous page
