The Royal Palace of Stok in Ladakh

From the inner courtyard

Stok, also Stog and Tog, lies about 15 km South of Leh. Don't confuse the Royal Palace with Stok Gompa, which is close (2 km) but an own entity. The palace was built in 1820 (other sources have 1825) under the rule of King Tsepal Tondup Namgyal. It was meant more to be a summer home for the royal family. In 1842 Leh Palace had been invaded, so that the king and his family were forced to move to Stok Palace.

Yes, communications!

Guess he had been out at feed,

when they came with the transmitter mast

The palace is five stories high and has about 80 rooms, of which 12 are used by the royal family. So there ist enough space for the museum. „The Royal Palace Museum is a must-visit as it displays items like imperial thangka paintings, the king's crown, dresses, coins, perak jewellery pieces adorned with turquoise and lapis lazuli and the queen's ancient turquoise and gold yub-jhur (turquoise-encrusted headpiece) and many religious objects.” [1] I would have liked to make some pictures, especially of the old photographs on display. Yet, there is a strict “No Photography” policy.

The Namgyal dynasty lasted from 1460 to 1842, when it fell to the Dogra Empire [2], which has been in power in Jammu and Kashmir from 1846 to 1947. There are about four years, which I can't account for. Ladakh has been invaded in 1842. The royal family moved to Stok in 1843. And I guess it took some time to establish rule in the large and inaccessable region.

Nowadays the royal family only has representative duties, but the Ladakhis still use titles like Gyalpo (king) or Gyalmo (queen) [3]. Rani Parvati Devi Deskit Wangmo is the widow of the last king, Kunzang Namgyal, “who turned out to be an alcoholic and died at the age of 48, leaving behind Devi and their four children (two sons and two daughters)” [4]. Parvati Devi had been member of the 6th Lok Sabha (House of the People), which is the lower house in the Parliament of India, from 1977-1980.

If you aren't in a hurry, take a seat at the café of the palace, sip a tea and enjoy the vista of the Indus valley with the lofty peaks in the back.

Links and References:
[1] https://www.incredibleindia.org/content/incredible-india-v2/en/destinations/leh-ladakh/stok-palace.html
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Namgyal_dynasty_of_Ladakh [3] Mattausch, Jutta: Ladakh und Zanskar (Reiseführer) (Deutsch). 2017.
[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parvati_Devi_(Ladakh_politician)

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