Shey is a village in the

Leh district Leh district is a district in the union territory of Ladakh, India. With an area of 45,110 ''km'2'', it is the second largest district in the country smaller only to Kutch. It is bounded on the north by Gilgit-Baltistan's Kharmang and Gha ...

Ladakh Ladakh () is a region administered by India as a union territory which constitutes a part of the larger Kashmir region and has been the subject of dispute between India, Pakistan, and China since 1947. (subscription required) Quote: "Jammu and ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. It is located in the

Leh Leh () ( lbj, ) is the joint capital and largest city of Ladakh, a union territory of India. Leh, located in the Leh district, was also the historical capital of the Kingdom of Ladakh, the seat of which was in the Leh Palace, the former res ...

tehsil A tehsil (, also known as tahsil, taluka, or taluk) is a local unit of administrative division in some countries of South Asia. It is a subdistrict of the area within a district including the designated populated place that serves as its administr ...

, 15 km from

towards

Hemis Hemis, also spelled Hamis, is a village in the Leh district of Ladakh, India. It is located in the Kharu tehsil, 40 km southeast of Leh town on the Leh-Manali Highway and under-construction Bilaspur–Leh line. Hemis is well known for th ...

. Shey was founded as the capital of Ladakh (then called

Maryul Maryul (also called ''Mar-yul'' of ''mNgah-ris''), later the Kingdom of Ladakh, was a west Tibetan kingdom based in modern-day Ladakh and Tibet. The kingdom had its capital at Shey. The kingdom was founded by Lhachen Palgyigon, during the rul ...

), by the king

Lhachen Palgyigon Lhachen Palgyigon () () was the founding king of the Kingdom of Maryul, based in modern Ladakh. Palgyigon was a son of Kyide Nyimagon, a descendant of the Old Tibetan dynasty, who unified the Western Tibet (Ngari) during the Tibetan Era of Fragm ...

in the 10th century. It was gradually eclipsed by

around the 17th century after the growth of Central Asian trade.

History

Towards the end of the 9th century, the Tibetan prince

Kyide Nyimagon Kyide Nyimagon () (), whose original name was Khri-skyid-lding, was a member of the Yarlung dynasty of Tibet and a descendant of emperor Langdarma. He migrated to Western Tibet and founded the kingdom of Ngari Khorsum ("the three divisions o ...

(''Skyid lde nyima gon)'', a great-grandson of the Tibetan king, Langdarma, established a small kingdom in

Guge Guge (; ) was an ancient dynastic kingdom in Western Tibet. The kingdom was centered in present-day Zanda County, Ngari Prefecture, Tibet Autonomous Region. At various points in history after the 10th century AD, the kingdom held sway over a vast ...

, which eventually grew to encompass the whole of western Tibet up to the

Zoji La Zoji La (sometimes Zojila Pass) is a high List of mountain passes#India, mountain pass in the Himalayas. It is in the Government of India, Indian Union territory of Ladakh, Kargil district, Kashmir. Located in the Dras, Drass, the pass connec ...

mountain pass. His eldest son,

, is credited with much of the conquest in the northwest. After his father's death, he inherited the region of

("lowland"), as Ladakh was then called. Several towns and castles are said to have been founded by Nyimagon, and he apparently ordered the construction of the main sculptures at Shey. In an inscription, he says he had them made for the religious benefit of the ''Tsanpo'' (the dynastical name of his father and ancestors), and of all the people of

Ngari Ngari Prefecture () or Ali Prefecture () is a prefecture of China's Tibet Autonomous Region covering Western Tibet, whose traditional name is Ngari Khorsum. Its administrative centre and largest settlement is the town of Shiquanhe. History Ngar ...

(Western Tibet). This shows that already in this generation Langdarma's opposition to Buddhism had disappeared.Francke (1914), pp. 89-90. Shey, just 15 km east of modern Leh, was the ancient seat of the Ladakhi kings.

Geography

Shey is located in the upper

Indus Valley The Indus ( ) is a transboundary river of Asia and a trans-Himalayan river of South and Central Asia. The river rises in mountain springs northeast of Mount Kailash in Western Tibet, flows northwest through the disputed region of Kashmir, ...

, just 15 km east of the modern capital of Ladakh,

. It has an average elevation of 3,415 metres (11,204 feet). Every year

Sindhu Darshan Festival Sindhu Darshan Festival is a festival held in Leh, Ladakh, India. The festival is held every year in June on the full moon day of Guru Purnima. On this day, devotees gather near the banks of the Indus River, which is known as the Sindhu River in ...

, is held here on the banks of the

Indus River The Indus ( ) is a transboundary river of Asia and a trans-Himalayan river of South and Central Asia. The river rises in mountain springs northeast of Mount Kailash in Western Tibet, flows northwest through the disputed region of Kashmir, ...

Demographics

According to the

2011 census of India The 2011 Census of India or the 15th Indian Census was conducted in two phases, house listing and population enumeration. The House listing phase began on 1 April 2010 and involved the collection of information about all buildings. Information ...

, Shey has 398 households. The effective literacy rate (i.e. the literacy rate of population excluding children aged 6 and below) is 78.95%.

Education

The Druk White Lotus School The Druk White Lotus School is located in Shey, Ladakh, in northern India, and is known locally as the Druk Padma Karpo School. Karpo means White and Padma means Lotus in the local language Bodhi. About The school was started at the reques ...

, whose patrons include the

14th Dalai Lama The 14th Dalai Lama (spiritual name Jetsun Jamphel Ngawang Lobsang Yeshe Tenzin Gyatso, known as Tenzin Gyatso (Tibetan: བསྟན་འཛིན་རྒྱ་མཚོ་, Wylie: ''bsTan-'dzin rgya-mtsho''); né Lhamo Thondup), known as ...

and Richard Gere, is also located in Shey.

Footnotes

References

* Francke, A. H. (1977). ''A History of Ladakh''. A. H. Francke (Originally published as, ''A History of Western Tibet'', (1907). 1977 Edition with critical introduction and annotations by S. S. Gergan & F. M. Hassnain. Sterling Publishers, New Delhi. * Francke, A. H. (1914). ''Antiquities of Indian Tibet''. Two Volumes. Calcutta. 1972 reprint: S. Chand, New Delhi. * Hill, John E. (2009). ''Through the Jade Gate to Rome: A Study of the Silk Routes during the Later Han Dynasty, 1st to 2nd Centuries CE''. BookSurge, Charleston, South Carolina. . {{Leh-Manali Highway Villages in Leh tehsil