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LEH. 



I. 



THE town of Leh, situated in the midst of 

 stupendous Kara Korum Himalaya, is a meeting- 

 place between North and South, East and West, 

 a Nijni Novgorod in miniature. There are few 

 places in the world where a more varied assort- 

 ment of Oriental types are seen than in the long 

 street shaded by poplars which forms the chief 

 bazaar and rendezvous of traders. Besides natives 

 of the place, and visitors from Baltistan and half 

 a dozen other Himalayan principalities, there are 

 Indians of all creeds : Pathans, some subjects of 

 the Amir of Kabul, others belonging to inde- 

 pendent tribes ; Tajiks from Bokhara and Russian 

 Turkestan, Khirgiz and Kalmaks, Tibetans, Chinese, 

 and even Persians and Arabs. In its limited area 

 are churches, temples, and mosques ; while domi- 

 nating the whole from an eminence at the north- 

 ern end of the town is the Buddhist Monastery 



