Election Day in Ladakh

Light returns to Ladakh by about 4:30 in the morning. The moon hung over the mountains in the distance, and I could see every detail of the terrace outside our room in Hotel Omasila as well. It would have been a great time to shoot a dramatic nighttime landscape photographs, but I decided to hold the image in my memory instead.

By about 5 o’clock the hotel was alive with the sounds of people chanting according to a variety of traditions. I could particularly make out a male voice chanting deep, earthy oms and a female voice chanting in a tradition that requires more words. I joined in with my own silent meditation. Who knows how many others in the hotel and the city of Leh were also engaging in meditation in their separate rooms but all together, nevertheless.

Judy woke up naturally, too, and asked me if my clock was right that it wasn’t even 6 o’clock yet.

Yesterday was Ladakh’s day to vote in India’s parliamentary election. The election has been in progress for a month, and now voting is complete. All businesses and schools were closed, and someone told us that no one was permitted to drive until afternoon, “if it was peaceful.”

We walked to a polling place in Leh, a small primary school, to see how things were going in local voting. Small groups of women (mostly) were also heading in that direction on foot. The only vehicles we saw at that time were military, not unusual for two reasons: first, a big army base is up the street from the school (home of the Fire and Fury Officers’ Mess, according to a sign with an arrow pointing onto the base), and second, this area is sandwiched between Pakistan and China and the borders have not always been quiet here.

Polling station no. 063 Changspa expected 571 voters, 275 +2 males and 296 females, according to a handwritten, official notice (feel free to check the adding). Voters take their laminated voter cards – a friendly Ladakhi woman showed us hers – to a table in a field across the lane from the school where the election agent checks the voter list and gives voters a small piece of paper to take into the school where they will cast their ballots.

Five candidates were running for the seat for this area, two from major parties and three independents. The ballot presents the name of the candidate and a symbol for each one because literacy in this region, and India in general, is not universal.

We asked a young woman to explain what was going on and about how people feel about participating in the election. She said that most people will come to vote. Judging from the mood of the crowd, people were happy to participate, or happy that they had a holiday? In any case, people in Ladakh voted peacefully and cars began to appear on the streets again as the afternoon progressed. After about 5 or 6 p.m. some businesses reopened, too.

In the afternoon we hired a car and drove to two of the many monasteries, or gompas in Tibetan, Shay and Thiksay, both built in the 16th century.

More on the monasteries later because Judy has just come out of the shower, and we have hot water only in the morning. If I hop into the bathroom quickly, it will still be warm (not an opportunist, am I?). We got a gas heater last night and are impressed with its power, but it doesn’t reach to the bathroom.

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