This book documents the extraordinarily complex pattern of trade upon which the pre-Independence economy of Ladakh largely depended. Although the trans-Himalayan traffic in subsistence commodities in other parts of the Himalaya has been researched, that in Ladakh has until now remained almost entirely undocumented. The book is based mainly on oral evidence; this is related to documentary sources ranging from the seventeenth to the twentieth century. This intriguing account of Ladakhi trade is spiced with enough personal details of the traders at all levels, to demonstrate that trade is something more than a matter of routes and commodities, prices and rates of profit; it is an activity carried out by real human beings, profoundly colouring their entire way of life. From review (Dr Rizvi s) book is a magisterial account of... the legendary silk routes and Ladakh itself that she knows so well. It is a wonderfully evocative book about the trade routes... (and) a brilliant synthesis of the oral histories... with the traditional historian s concern for objectivity and real analysis. She narrates wonderful life stories.... - Dr Hamida Khuhro, Dawn

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