Please find below the election ballot and a brief introduction of the candidates’ backgrounds attached as PDFs.
To cast a vote, please fill up the ballot as described in the document and e-mail the ballot to Election Officer Dr Sonam Wangchok at sonamleh2@gmail.com by 21:00 hours (Indian Standard Time) on 7th October, 2023!
We have an update regarding the 20th IALS Conference, 2023. Many participants from India are unable to go and attend the conference at Heidelberg, due to a problem with their VISA application. Some of them received their VISA last minute and for a very short duration of time. Therefore, given the present circumstances, it was decided by the Conference Organising Committee with discussion with the Heidelberg University, that we should have a hybrid conference, where we plan to have presenters from Ladakh at one place and relay an online platform for the two days of conference presentations, i.e. 6th and 7th October, 2023, as per the original paper presentations schedule.
Unfortunately, we will only be able to ask only the presenters from the final programme to present their papers during the event. If any IALS members and other interested individuals wish to join us in Leh, we request you to register at ialsconference2023@gmail.com and confirm your participation for the event on or before the 4th October, 2023.The registration fee for two day conference 6th & 7th October, 2023, is Rs. 1000/- for individuals, and Rs. 500/- for students.
Since we have limited seating capacity of 15-20 individuals, we will confirm participation on ‘First Come, First Serve’ basis. Please do email us before the 04th October, as we need to order catering in advance.
For online participation, we will also provide an online link for students and others interested.
Dear Member, We have all Executive Committee posts up for re-election at the Association’s forthcoming conference in Heidelberg this year. These posts are: – President – Secretary – Editor – Treasurer/Membership Secretary – Ladakh Liaison Officer (Leh and Kargil) – Webmaster IALS invites nominations with immediate effect, with the intention of voting for candidates and ratifying the final decisions at the next General Meeting in Heidelberg, 2023. The Association’s Executive Committee is responsible for overseeing the functioning of the Association, encouraging participation, facilitating research in Ladakh and publishing the works of the Association’s members, as well as promoting the Association and its work internationally and ensuring members are kept up-to-date on relevant news and events. According to the current constitution of IALS, the term of office for each post is four years i.e. two full conference cycles. The general responsibilities of these posts are detailed below:
President The responsibilities of the President include (but are not limited to) chairing the Executive Committee, chairing the General Meeting of the Association, and representing the Association in the public domain. Sonam Wangchok is the incumbent president.
Secretary The responsibilities of the Secretary include (but are not limited to) the drafting and dissemination of the Agenda for the General Meetings, taking the minutes of general meetings and publicising key changes and decisions made, managing the election of vacant posts on the Executive and Advisory Committees, and liaising with the Conference Convenor over the organisation of individual conferences. Elizabeth Williams-Oeberg is the incumbent secretary.
Editor The responsibilities of the Editor are to oversee the publication of the journal, Ladakh Studies including the double-blind peer review process, assist in the publication of conference proceedings and oversee the website and social media outreach. Sunetro Ghosal is the incumbent Editor
Treasurer/Membership Secretary The responsibilities of the Treasurer/Membership Secretary are to maintain the Association’s membership database, manage the accounts of the Association, and operate the Association’s bank account in the UK. In view of the last responsibility, this position should ideally be held by a person based in the UK. Lauren Smyth is the incumbent Treasurer/Membership Secretary.
Ladakh Liaison Officer (Leh and Kargil) The responsibilities of the Ladakh Liaison Officers are to coordinate various activities in Ladakh, operate the bank account in Leh, collect membership fees and other Ladakh-based activities related to the Association’s functioning Fayaz Ali (Kargil) and Tsewang Rigzin (Leh) are the incumbent Ladakh Liaison Officers
Webmaster The responsibilities of the Webmaster are to maintain the website and update it on a regular basis. This is done in consultation with other members of the Executive Committee. Sebastian Forneck is the incumbent webmaster.
In addition, all 12 posts in the Advisory Committee are also up for election. Members of the Advisory Committee provide important inputs and support to the Executive Committee on various matters related to the work of the Association. The incumbent members of the Advisory Committee are Dr Iqbal Ahmed, Monisha Ahmed, Amjad Ali, John Bray, Laurianne Bruneau, Juliane Dame, Quentin Devers, Kacho Mumtaz Khan, Gulzar Hussein Munshi, Thupstan Nurboo, Tsewang Rigzin, and Tashi Ldawa Tsangspa
In recent years Ladakh Studies have seen an expanding membership, an extension of the frontiers of our research, and a wider audience reach. This expansion has been assisted by advances in communications, opportunities for travel, and a continuously changing geopolitical landscape, all of which provide us with opportunities to access new networks and build new partnerships with neighbouring regions. Membership of the Executive Committee and Advisory Committee provides opportunities to respond and take advantage of these changes, to raise the international profile of Ladakh Studies and the work that we do, and to influence the future direction of the Association.
If you are interested in being considered for one of the forthcoming posts on the Executive Committee or the Advisory Committee, or if you know of somebody who you wish to nominate who you think can take Ladakh Studies forward, please email their name to editor@ladakhstudies.org.
The deadline to file nominations or propose names (with the consent of the candidate) is 20 September 2023. Following nomination, the election committee will publicise the names of the candidates. Sunetro Ghosal and Sonam Wangchok will oversee the election process as they will not be contesting the election.
If you are unable to attend the conference and would like to cast your vote by email, please get in touch with the election committee at the above email ID.
In the meantime, on behalf of the members of the IALS, we would like to take this opportunity to thank the current incumbents of the posts up for election for their commitment to Ladakh Studies and hard work in bringing the Association to the point where we are now.
Thanks to the support of the editors and contributors of “Ladakh: Culture, History, and Development between Himalaya and Karakoram. Recent Research on Ladakh 8 (1999).” we are happy to announce that pdfs of the articles published in this volume are available for download now on our homepage.
Because of a very long waitlist for Schengen visa appointments due to the aftermath of COVID travel restrictions, participants from India would not have been able to receive their visas in time for the conference in June.
Therefore, the conference has to be postponed to 05th – 08th October 2023!
To all participants fromoutside the EU: Apply way ahead of time for your Schengen visa. The time until you receive your visa might take up to 4(!!) months at the moment!
I hope everyone is doing well. Yesterday, we had a thorough discussion in Leh about the next IALS conference with Prof. Marcus and his team from Heidelberg University. First off, I’m delighted to report that we have received more than 60 abstracts. These will be reviewed, and as soon as the results are known, they will be sent to the authors so that they have enough time to look for funding, etc. From our end, we are trying our best to explore various financing sources in the hopes of receiving some financial assistance, particularly for the students. We are also receiving some news that some senior members of IALS may help student/s to participate in the conference if their abstracts are accepted.
Please visit the university website for more information about conference fees, lodging, and other related matters:
Another question we’ve been asked by members is whether it’s possible to attend the conference without presenting a paper. In this case, we’ve decided to welcome non-paper presenters as long as they pay the conference fee.
The university has also promised to assist the participants with making travel arrangements from Frankfurt airport to Heidelberg, obtaining a visa through the German center in Delhi, and other essential arrangements. Please contact us at ialsconference2023@gmail.com if you have any additional questions. Regards & Juley
Neil and Kath Howard with Erberto Lo Bue (left), Rome 2007.
Neil Howard, who passed away in January 2023, was an independent researcher specialising in the study of the military and architectural history of Ladakh.
Neil came late to the study of Ladakh and by chance. In the course of a trek through Ladakh in the early 1980s, he and his wife Kath noticed the many ruined forts above the region’s villages. Finding that little had been written about them, he decided to do the research himself. His first major publication was an article on the development of Ladakh’s military architecture, which appeared in the Italian journal East and West in 1989, and this is still an important reference source. His initial work on forts led naturally to further study on military campaigns in Ladakh, notably the invasion by Mirza Haider Dughlat in the 1530s and the Dogra invasion three centuries later. He also extended his geographical range to include Lahul and Kangra.
All Neil’s work shows the same qualities. Perhaps most importantly, his architectural and archaeological studies were based on careful on-the-ground observation. He weighed up the evidence as he saw it, and pushed his analysis as far as he reasonably could, but no further. Later, he worked with other colleagues, notably Philip Denwood of the School of Oriental and African Studies (London), to assess the written sources that might shed further light on his chosen themes.
I myself retain a happy memory of an occasion when I was able to perform a service as Neil’s research assistant. In 2005, together with our colleagues Abdul Ghani Sheikh and Ken Macdonald, I made an excursion to photograph the chortens and castle ruins of Gya. These later contributed to Neil and Kath’s article on Gya that appeared in 2014 (see bibliography).
Although Neil did most of the writing and much of the talking, he worked with Kath as a husband-and-wife team both on mountain treks and, later, on the conference circuit. Always forthright in his views on life’s ironies, he was generous and supportive in his friendships. In later years, he took pleasure in the publications of younger scholars who have deepened and extended his own research findings. His own carefully calibrated pioneering work remains an example to follow.
Publications
1984. “Castles of the Himalayas.” Popular Archaeology, April 1984, pp. 12-19. Hemel Hempstead.
1987. “Royal Fortresses of Ladakh.” Archaeology Today, May 1987, pp. 29-35. Frome, England.
1989. “The Development of the Fortresses of Ladakh c.9501650 AD.” East and West 39, Nos. 14, pp. 217-288. Rome: Istituto per il medio ed estremo oriente.
1990. “Inscriptions at Balukhar and Char Zampa and General Archaeological Observations on Balukhar Fort and its Environs.” With Philip Denwood. In Indo-Tibetan Studies: Papers in honour and appreciation of Professor David L. Snellgrove’s contribution to Indo-Tibetan Studies, pp. 81-88. Edited by Tadeusz Skorupski. Tring: Institute of Tibetan Studies.
1992. “The Dogra Forts in Greater Ladakh, North-west India.” Fort 20, pp. 7186.
1994. “The Trekking Route up the Tsarap River, Zangskar.” Ladakh Studies 7, pp. 9- 10.
1995 (a). “The Fortified Places of Zanskar.” In Recent Research on Ladakh 4 & 5, pp. 79-99. Edited by Henry Osmaston and Philip Denwood. London: School of Oriental and African Studies; Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass.
1995 (b). “Military Aspects of the Dogra Conquest of Ladakh 18341839.” In Recent Research on Ladakh 4 & 5, pp. 349-361. Edited by Henry Osmaston and Philip Denwood. London: School of Oriental and African Studies; Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass.
1996 (a). “What Happened Between 1450 and 1550 AD? And Other Questions from the History of Ladakh.” In Recent Research on Ladakh 6, pp. 121-138. Edited by Henry Osmaston and Nawang Tsering. Bristol: Bristol University Press; Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass.
1996 (b). “Chronology of the Travels of G.T. Vigne in the Western Himalaya, 1835-1839 Ladakh Studies 8, pp. 27-30.
1999. “Ancient Painted Pottery from Ladakh.” In Ladakh: Culture, History and Development, between Himalaya and Karakoram. Recent Research on Ladakh 8, pp. 222-236. Edited by Martijn van Beek, Kristoffer Brix Bertelsen and Poul Pedersen. Aarhus: Aarhus University Press,
2002. “The Political Geography of South-east Zanskar, and a Reconsideration of the Royal Chronologies of Zanskar and Ladakh in the 15 th Century.” South Asian Studies 18, pp. 91-108. London: Society for South Asian Studies.
2005 (a). “Sultan Zain-ul Abidin’s Raid into Ladakh.” In Ladakhi Histories. Local and Regional Perspectives, pp. 125-145. Edited by John Bray. Leiden: Brill.
2005 (b). “The Development of the Boundary between the State of Jammu & Kashmir and British India, and its Representation on Maps of the Lingti Plain.” In Ladakhi Histories. Local and Regional Perspectives, pp. 217-234. Leiden: Brill.
2007. Things to do in Leh. A jeu d’esprit. Self-published pamphlet for private circulation.
2009. “Prince Peter’s Journey from Manali to Ladakh, 5 th June–22 nd August 1938.” In Recent Research on Ladakh 2009, pp. 55-71. With Poul Pedersen. Edited by Monisha Ahmed & John Bray. Kargil & Leh: International Association of Ladakh Studies.
2012. “The Tak House Maitreya and Some Corrections of the Later History of Ladakh.” Ladakh Studies 28, pp. 36-38.
2014. “Historic Ruins in the Gya Valley, Eastern Ladakh, and a Consideration of Their Relationship to the History of Ladakh and Maryul. With Kath Howard and an Appendix on the War of Tsede (rTse lde) of Guge in 1083 CE by Philip Denwood.” In Art and Architecture in Ladakh. Cross-Cultural Transmissions in the Himalayas and Karakoram pp. 68-99. Edited by Erberto Lo Bue and John Bray. Leiden: Brill.
2016. “Castles and Defensive Architecture in Purig: an Introduction, Survey and Preliminary Analysis.” In Visible Heritage. Essays on the Art and Architecture of Greater Ladakh, pp. 85-112. Edited by Rob Linrothe and Heinrich Pöll. New Delhi: Studio Orientalia.
2020. “The defences of Basgo revisited.” Études mongoles et sibériennes, centrasiatiques et tibétaines. With Quentin Devers. Online publication : http://journals.openedition.org/emscat/4257.
Forthcoming. “The Portal of the Leh Palace.” With Gerald Kozicz. Awaiting publication.
International Association for Ladakh Studies (IALS) 