Khalatse

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Khalatse (or Khalsi or Khaltse) is a place 337 km east of Srinigar on the road to Leh.

The road crosses the Indus in this place. There are about 1600 people living in the village. The importance of the place is due to its location at the point where the road meets the Indus valley. Near the village are the ruins of a fortified custom house.

There are the remains of a superscription in Khalatse by the name of Maharaja Uvima who is identified as the Kushana king, Vima Kadphises.

Lha chen Naglug (circa 1150-1175), a Dard king built a bridge over the Indus at the exact spot where the present bridge is located. as well as, the Bragnag fort about 1.6 km above the present site as a safeguard for the bridge. The bridge was built in competition with the Babu Khar bridge just 4, 8 km away and clearly served the purpose of collecting tolls from travellers. It is said of the fort that it was the first to be built in the country. The ruins of the fort as well as extensive fields and irrigation works can still be seen today. Lha chen Naglug also built a fortress at Wanla.

There are a number of historical rock paintings. They show, among other things, a woman from the Dard ethnic group carrying a basket on her back and a man hunting an antelope. Some men wear flat hats. The clothing is similar to that of the present-day inhabitants of Da and Hann. In front of the fort at Khalatse there is an inscription in an Indian language, which probably dates from the time of Dard rule.

A German mission station of the Herrnhuter Brüdergemeine which was connected to the main mission station in Leh was operated here for about 50 years until India's independence in 1947. The mission station played an important role in medical care and school education, but recorded only few church admissions.

As you approach Khaltse on the road from Srinigar, it becomes clear that you are in a Buddhist region. One sees chörten small stupas, mani stones and prayer flags. Upstream and downstream of Khalatse the people are almost all Buddhists. Downstream, the people are mainly Brokpa or Dard.

Khalatse is known for its apricots. Since Khalatse is about 400 m lower than Leh, two harvests per year are possible here. When sowing is done in Leh in late May, the plants here have already grown. The first plant is usually grim a barley (Hordeum vulgare L. var. nudum Hook. f.) in an old form with an easier to remove husk. It is used to make tsampa, a staple food in Ladakh. The harvest time is usually mid-July. Buckwheat, turnips and other vegetables are grown for this purpose.

Climate

Khalatse has a local steppe climate. The average annual rainfall in Lamayuru is 224 mm. The mean annual temperature is 7.3 °C.