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Ladakh

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Article • History • Geography • Politics • Jammu and Kashmir (1954 - 2019)


Ladakh is a union territory of India, having previously being part of the state of Jammu and Kashmir with special status (given by Article 370) which was made into an union territory on 31 October 2019 and bifurcated further into the union territories of [[Jammu and Kashmir]] and Ladakh upon the abolition of Article 370. It became India's first ever union territory in which the majority of the population follows Buddhism. It is also known for its cultural similarity to Tibet.

It is an union territory without any legislature, its present Lieutenant Governor is Radha Krishna Mathur, and it has 1 seat in the Indian Lok Saha (Lower Parliament), currently occupied by Member of Parliament Jamyang Tsering Namgyal of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Earlier, when Jammu and Kashmir was a state there were 4 Members of the Legislative Assembly of Jammu and Kashmir elected from the Ladakh division.

It consists of two districts of Leh and Kargil. It is both largest union territory by area and also the least populous one. While 59,146 square kilometers of the region is controlled by India, 72,971 square km of area is controlled by Pakistan as part of its Gilgit-Baltistan territory (and proposed province), 5,180 square km of area is controlled by China under Trans-Karakoram Tract and 37,555 square km is controlled by China as part of Askai Chin territory.

It also consists of two Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Councils (LAHDC) , in the Leh and Kargil districts known as LADHC Leh and LADHC Kargil . The LAHDC Kargil is lead by Chief Executive Member Feroz Ahmad Khan of the Jammu and Kashmir National Conference (JKNC), whereas the LAHDC Leh is led by Tashi Gyalson of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)

The official languages are Hindi and English. However, in Leh district the predominant mother tongue is Ladakhi (also called Bauti) (a Tibetic language) spoken by 37.78 percent of the population, and Purkhi (considered as a dialect of Balti) is the predominant language in the Kargil district, spoken by 33.61 percent of the population. Educated population has knowledge of Hindu, Urdu, and English which works as a lingua franc with outsiders, and administrative work and education is done in English.

It has two joint capitals Leh and Kargil both located in the Leh and Kargil districts.

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