There is little tradition of artistic craftsmanship in Ladakh, most luxury articles in the past having been obtained through imports. The Government has set up height altitude farms for the breeding of the goats in the higher reaches of Kashmir and Ladakh. Wool is sheared of these goats twice a year and maximum wool do come locally from the tribals of Ladakh.

The exception is the village of Chiling, about 19 km up the Zanskar river from Nimo. Here, a community of metal workers who are said to be the descendants of artisans brought from Nepal in the mid-l7th century to build one of the gigantic Buddha- images at Shey, carry on their hereditary vocation. Working in silver, brass and copper, they produce exquisite items for domestic and religious use: tea and chang pots, teacup-stands and lids, hookah- bases, ladles and bowls and, occasionally, silver chorten for installation in temples and domestic shrines. Those who cannot afford the expensive ware of the Chiling craftsmen, are supplied by local blacksmiths (gara), with the bowls and cooking pots they need for everyday use, as well as with agricultural implements. The gara also make the large and ornate iron stoves seen in kitchens of the richer Ladakhi homes.

In general, craftsmanship has not developed beyond the production of everyday items for personal and domestic use. Pattu, the rough, warm, woollen material used for clothing is made from locally produced wool, spun by women on drop-spindles, and woven by semi-professional weavers on portable looms set up in the winter sunshine, or under the shade of a tree in summer. Baskets, for the transport of any kind of burden - manure for the fields, fresh vegetables, even babies - are woven out of willow twigs, or a particular variety of grass. Woodwork is confined largely to the production of pillars and carved lintels for the houses, and the low carved tables or Chog-tse that are a feature of every Ladakhi living-room.

Many such items, together with others recently introduced as part of the development process, are available in the District Handicrafts Centre at Leh, which exists to train local people as well as to market their products. There you can find, in addition to traditional objects, a few special items like pashmina shawl (rough compared with those produced in Srinagar), but soft and warm as only pure pashmina can be; and carpets in designs and techniques borrowed from Tibet. Similar carpets are also to be had at the Tibetan Refugee Centre at Choglamsar. The Handicrafts Centre also has a department of thangka painting. These icons on cloth are executed in accordance with strict traditional guidelines handed down the generations. In the same tradition are the mural paintings in the monasteries, where semi-professionals, both monks and laymen, toil to keep the walls decorated with images symbolising various aspects of Buddhism. The skill of building religious statues is also not extinct. The gigantic image of Maitreya Buddha was installed in Thiksey Gompa as recently as the early 1980s. Knitting, weaving, cabinet-making, painting ........ these crafts have an important place in traditional Ladakhi society.

In summer, in the shady regions by the Indus and in Nubra, wool is spun and winter blankets are woven. As soon as wintry weather arrives , the clicking of needles accompanies the gentle growl of the heating stove. The dress of the men, a long robe of cotton or wool, the goncha, is dark, but those of the women are veritable masterpieces in blue, red and gold. Embroidered dresses and the ceremonial headgear, the perak, cover the resplendent backs with hair covered with turquoise.