Endangered heritage

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Endangered heritage

In an endeavour to sensitise students of Jammu University to the priceless heritage of Ladakh, the tourism club of the Centre for Hospitality and Tourism Management organised an interactive session last week. Kavita Suri has the particularsThe ancient city of Leh in Ladakh, situated in the Himalayas, should have been included in the 2008 World Monument list of the 100 most endangered historical sites in the world by the World Monument Forum, a New York-based organisation. This valuable heritage site can still be saved if the enlightened community of students of Jammu and Kashmir are roped in to lend a helping hand in the conservation effort. In an endeavour to sensitise students of Jammu University to the priceless heritage of Ladakh and trigger and get them to work actively for its conversation, the tourism club of the Centre for Hospitality and Tourism Management organised an interactive session on Rock Art of Ladakh. Shiv Darshan Singh Jamwal, an authority on the subject, presided over the session.Jamwal, an IPS officer by profession who is presently posted as SSP Vigilance, Jammu, has been working on the subject since 2001. He has made an impressive inventory of the rock carvings of Ladakh and has been actively advocating the conservation of this non-monumental yet historically significant archaeological heritage. Professor Harald Hauptmann, an internationally acclaimed authority on rock art from the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences in Germany, who is associated with the documentation and conservation project spearheaded by Jamwal was also present.Supported by slides, Jamwal presented an overview of the ancient tradition of engraving on rocks in the mountain desert which is still a living art and is practised by Buddhists in Ladakh. Ladakh’s rock art dates back to the eighth century BC and its discovery has since provided evidence of the level of civilisation that flourished in the entire region way back when.Scattered throughout Ladakh, these unique rock carvings were done on glazed surfaces of huge magnetite boulders that were used as a canvas to carve various pictures depicting the day-to-day life of the people, their religion, culture, beliefs, customs and economic life.Identifying human vandalism and rapid economic development as two major threats to the ancient rock carvings of Ladakh, Jamwal emphasised the need to conserve the threatened heritage of the state in his well-attended lecture at Jammu University.While many rock art sites in Ladakh created by travellers along ancient routes are under threat because of road construction which is in full swing along old routes throughout the region, some unattended rocks are threatened by development or vandalism, and in particular by rock cutters looking for material for house construction, said Jamwal. Some of the carvings have been stolen by tourists and the security force personnel who have the ability to estimate their value. Many have fallen prey to vandalism or have been altered by irresponsible people.“Rock carvings in Ladakh are threatened to the extent that some of them could never perhaps be retrieved. Spreading consciousness among the people, therefore, of the artistic value of these rock carvings and the need for their conservation is of utmost importance,” said Jamwal. He asked his students to spread this awareness among the masses.“As future leaders of the tourism and hospitality industry, students need to shoulder an added responsibility to protect this majestic non-monumental heritage site,” he said. Professor Deepak Raj Gupta, director, CHTM, said that Ladakh had already started attracting inbound tourists and, therefore, the conservation effort was all the more significant. Appreciating the initiatives of tourism club, he said that it had been doing an excellent job in creating awareness of the various issues related to tourism.The lecture was followed by a lively session dedicated to a full length discussion of pressing issues such as community involvement in conservation of rock carvings, future stewardship decisions, removing rocks for preservation in a rock garden as proposed by Jamwal, and other related issues of critical import. Several students of the university participated in the discussion.(The author is The Statesman’s Jammu-based Special Representative.)