Shey is a village in the

Leh district Leh district is a district in Indian-administered Ladakh in the Kashmir#Dispute, disputed Kashmir-region. The application of the term "administered" to the various regions of Kashmir and a mention of the Kashmir dispute is supported by the WP:T ...

Ladakh Ladakh () is a region administered by India as a union territory and constitutes an eastern portion of the larger Kashmir region that has been the subject of a Kashmir#Kashmir dispute, dispute between India and Pakistan since 1947 and India an ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. It is located in the

Leh Leh () is a city in Indian-administered Ladakh in the Kashmir#Kashmir_dispute, disputed Kashmir region. The application of the term "administered" to the various regions of Kashmir and a mention of the Kashmir dispute is supported by the WP:TE ...

tehsil A tehsil (, also known as tahsil, taluk, or taluka () is a local unit of administrative division in India and Pakistan. It is a subdistrict of the area within a Zila (country subdivision), district including the designated populated place that ser ...

, 15 km from

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

Maryul Maryul (), also called ''mar-yul'' of ''mnga'-ris'', was the western-most Tibetan kingdom based in modern-day Ladakh and some parts of Tibet. The kingdom had its capital at Shey. The kingdom was founded by Lhachen Palgyigon, during the rule ...

), by the king Lhachen Palgyigon in the 10th century, with Leh being winter capital.Ladakh and the three maitriyas
asianartnewspaper, 30 July 2021. 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 of ...

(''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 a ...

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

Zoji La Zoji La (sometimes Zojila Pass) is a high mountain pass in the Himalayas. It is located in the Ganderbal district of Jammu and Kashmir and the Kargil district of Ladakh, both union territories of India. This pass connects the Kashmir Valle ...

mountain pass. His eldest son, Lhachen Palgyigon, 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 (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 the Western Tibet region of China, flows northwest through the disp ...

, 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, is held here on the banks of the

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

Demographics

According to the 2011 census of India, 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, whose patrons include the

14th Dalai Lama The 14th Dalai Lama (born 6 July 1935; full spiritual name: Jetsun Jamphel Ngawang Lobsang Yeshe Tenzin Gyatso, shortened as Tenzin Gyatso; ) is the incumbent Dalai Lama, the highest spiritual leader and head of Tibetan Buddhism. He served a ...

and

Richard Gere Richard Tiffany Gere ( ; born August 31, 1949) is an American actor. He began appearing in films in the 1970s, playing a supporting role in ''Looking for Mr. Goodbar (film), Looking for Mr. Goodbar'' (1977) and a starring role in ''Days of Hea ...

, 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