Padum (also known as Padam) is the main

town A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...

and the administrative centre of the

Zanskar Zanskar, Zahar (locally) or Zangskar, is the southwestern region of Kargil district in the Indian union territory of Ladakh. The administrative centre of Zanskar is Padum. Zanskar, together with the rest of Ladakh, was briefly a part of the kin ...

tehsil in

Kargil district Kargil district is a district in Indian-administered Ladakh in the Kashmir#Dispute, disputed Kashmir-region,The application of the term "administered" to the various regions of Kashmir and a mention of the Kashmir dispute is supported by the ...

Ladakh Ladakh () is a region administered by India as a union territory and constitutes an eastern portion of the larger Kashmir region that has been the subject of a Kashmir#Kashmir dispute, dispute between India and Pakistan since 1947 and India an ...

, India. Named after the Buddhist guru

Padmasambhava Padmasambhava ('Born from a Lotus'), also known as Guru Rinpoche ('Precious Guru'), was a legendary tantric Buddhist Vajracharya, Vajra master from Oddiyana. who fully revealed the Vajrayana in Tibet, circa 8th – 9th centuries... He is consi ...

, it was historically one of the two main capitals of the Zanskar Kingdom, the other being

Zangla Zangla is a village in Zanskar tehsil of Kargil district, in the Indian union territory of Ladakh. It is located southeast of Kargil city, the district headquarters, and northeast of Padum, the headquarters of Zanskar. An ancient ruined pal ...

. It is via the link road from Kargil city (National Highway No. 1D). The new

Nimmu–Padum–Darcha road Nimmu–Padum–Darcha road (NPD road) or Zanskar Highway is a road between the Indian union territory of Ladakh and the state of Himachal Pradesh, passing through the region of Zanskar. It connects Nimmu in the Indus River, Indus Valley to Pad ...

(under construction) connects Padum directly to

Leh Leh () is a city in Indian-administered Ladakh in the Kashmir#Kashmir_dispute, disputed Kashmir region. The application of the term "administered" to the various regions of Kashmir and a mention of the Kashmir dispute is supported by the WP:TE ...

in the east and to

Darcha Darcha (elevation 3,360 m or 11,020 ft) is a pair of villages (Darcha Sumdo and Darach Dangma) on the Bhaga River in the Lahaul sub-division in the Lahaul and Spiti district in the Indian States and territories of India, state of Himac ...

Himachal Pradesh Himachal Pradesh (; Sanskrit: ''himācāl prādes;'' "Snow-laden Mountain Province") is a States and union territories of India, state in the northern part of India. Situated in the Western Himalayas, it is one of the thirteen Indian Himalayan ...

Description

The present population of Padum town is about 2,000 people. The traditional heart of the village is below the

gompa A Gompa or Gönpa or Gumba ("Five Breathtaking Gumbas Around Kathmandu", ''OMG Nepal'', https://omgnepal.com/five-breathtaking-gumbas-around-kathmandu/ "remote place", Sanskrit ''araṇya''), also known as ling (, "island"), is a sacred Buddhist ...

and Palace khar (now in ruins) where two large

chorten In Buddhism, a stupa (, ) is a domed hemispherical structure containing several types of sacred relics, including images, statues, metals, and ''śarīra''—the remains of Bhikkhu, Buddhist monks or Bhikkhuni, nuns. It is used as a place of ...

s stand above old buildings. A road was constructed in 1980 from NH1 at Kargil over

Pensi La Pensi-la (Pensi Pass) is a mountain pass in the Ladakh union territory of India, which is known as the Gateway to Zanskar. Pensi La is above sea level and connects the Suru Valley region to the Zanskar Valley region. The summit at this end of ...

, which is 235 km away. The 145 km road to

passing through Shinkula pass is now operational, connecting to the Manali-Leh Highway. Padum has several hotels, homestays and restaurants for tourists. Padum has a post office, internet cafes and telephone booths.

Geography

Padum is at the centre of the tri-armed Zanskar valley. It has an average elevation of . There are several villages to the north-east of Padum leading to Karsha monastery.

People

Front Wide Jama Masjid Padum Oct22 A7C 03913

Padum is largely inhabited by people of

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ), or Greater Tibet, is a region in the western part of East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are other ethnic groups s ...

an descent who follow

Tibetan Buddhism Tibetan Buddhism is a form of Buddhism practiced in Tibet, Bhutan and Mongolia. It also has a sizable number of adherents in the areas surrounding the Himalayas, including the Indian regions of Ladakh, Gorkhaland Territorial Administration, D ...

, but there is a sizable

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

population (accounting for ~40% of the town's population and growing steadily), mainly Balti, who have been present in Padum since the 17th century.

Town

SW Padum Market Reru Road Zanskar Jun24 A7CR 01086

Padum Zanskar Range View From Karsha Oct22 A7C 03931

The sub-divisional capital Padum is a town of the

sub-division or tehsil in the

state,

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. The

Zanskar River The Zanskar River is the first major tributary of the Indus River, equal or greater in volume than the main river, which flows entirely within Ladakh, India. It originates northeast of the Great Himalayan range and drains both the Himalayas and t ...

flows through the valley from its source at the Drang Drung glacier of the

. The

joins the Lungnak River near Pibiting village. A number of notable Buddhist monasteries are located near Padum, including

Bardan Monastery Bardan Monastery or Bardan Gompa is a 17th-century Buddhist monastery, approximately 12 kilometres south of Padum, in Zanskar, Ladakh, northern India at the side of the Lungnak river. The monastery also ran several smaller hermitages in the ar ...

and Karsha Monastery and the newly built Dalai Lama Photang. The

Phugtal Monastery Phuktal Monastery or Phuktal Gompa (often transliterated as Phugtal) is a Buddhist monastery located in the remote Lungnak Valley in south-eastern Zanskar, in the Himalayan region of Ladakh, in Northern India. It is 52 km southeast of Padum on ...

is accessible from here. It is a day's trek from Dorzang, the end of the road leading from Padum.

Access

A bus operates between 1 June and 30 September, after which the Manali–Leh (NH21) highway is normally closed. Other roads, including the highway from Leh to Srinagar via Kargil, remain open until the end of October. The

is under construction. The road to Darcha via Purne is open as of spring 2024, and half its length is now 2-lane tarmac, with the remainder unpaved.

Jio Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited (d/b/a Jio) is an Indian telecommunications company and a subsidiary of Jio Platforms, headquartered in Navi Mumbai. It operates a national LTE (telecommunication), LTE network with coverage across all 22 telecom ...

Has started providing its 4G connectivity from 2020, and now Padum is also connected to 4G network. Airtel has also started providing its mobile services in Padum in 2023.

References

Bibliography

* Janet Rizvi. (1996). ''Ladakh: Crossroads of High Asia''. Second Edition. Oxford University Press, Delhi. . *Osada ''et al.'' (2000). ''Mapping the Tibetan World''. Yukiyasu Osada, Gavin Allwright, and Atsushi Kanamaru. Reprint: 2004. Kotan Publishing, Tokyo. . * Schettler, Margaret & Rolf (1981). Kashmir, Ladakh & Zanskar. Lonely Planet Publications. South Yarra, Victoria, Australia. .

External links

Photos of Padum

Images taken at the Karsha Monastery, near Padum
{{Kargil district Cities and towns in Kargil district Ladakh Geography of Ladakh