Negotiating Identity Through Trade, Migration, and Cuisine: Ladakh on the Silk Route (1834 – 1947)

Abstract

Ladakh has long functioned as a cultural crossroads, where trade, migration, and cultural exchange along the historic Silk Route have shaped its evolving identity. Trade networks along these routes not only facilitated economic transactions but also shaped religious affiliations, societal hierarchies, and everyday cultural practices, fostering a distinct Ladakhi identity forged through continuous negotiation between diverse influences. This paper examines how these interactions influenced Ladakh’s social fabric. The Arghun community, as descendants of Kashmiri and Central Asian traders who married the local Ladakhi women, emerged as key intermediaries in trans-Himalayan commerce, playing a crucial role in shaping Ladakh’s mercantile and cultural landscape. Their presence, intermarriage with local communities, and adaptation to Ladakhi customs illustrate how trade was instrumental in identity construction. As a transcultural cuisine, Yarkhandi Pulao, a dish embedded in Ladakh’s culinary heritage, embodies the region’s historical entanglement with Central Asia, demonstrating how food serves as both a repository of memory and a medium of cultural synthesis. The culinary adaptation of Yarkhandi Pulao in Ladakh is a marker of transcultural identity formation. By drawing on oral histories, travel narratives, and archival sources, this paper argues that identity in Ladakh is not static but continually redefined through the movement of people, cuisines, goods, and ideas. It highlights how trade routes functioned as conduits of cultural transformation, reinforcing the notion that identity is a lived, evolving process shaped by historical encounters. This research offers a nuanced perspective on Ladakh’s past, illustrating that cultural identity is dynamic and shaped by centuries of interaction.

DOI: 10.46700/asssr/2025/v7/i2/193