Discovering Ladakh’s Uncharted Petroglyphs : A Short Note

 

Whispers on Stone: Discovering Ladakh’s Uncharted Petroglyphs

We were trudging down a dusty trail by the frozen stream near the little village of Lato when something caught our eye: a curious carving on a sun-bleached boulder. At first it seemed like a simple scratch, but as we knelt closer the outlines emerged – faint figures, perhaps animals. Our hearts raced. A closer look revealed many more carvings on adjacent stones, their pale lines surviving in the red-brown patina of the rock. In that quiet Himalayan afternoon, we had stumbled into the remote gallery of ancient hands.

We had been in that area for exploratory mountaineering, prospecting a remote valley for potential future climbs. It was March 2025, and all of Ladakh had just experienced a late winter storm that had blanketed the mountains in fresh snow. On our way out, tired but content, we took a side trail above the river – and that’s when we found the carvings. The discovery felt accidental, but significant: a reminder that in these mountains, even a descent route can lead to something profound. Before reaching any conclusions, we crosschecked with Dr. Sonam Wangchok—widely regarded as an expert in Ladakhi cultural heritage—and he confirmed that this site had not been previously recorded.

We paused in the silence, humbled. Here, etched into stone by someone’s chisel thousands of years ago, were stories left unsought by history. The carved ibex with curved horns, the stocky wild sheep, a hunting scene – these images looked out of place on our modern journey, yet somehow belonged to it as surely as the river belonged to the valley. Encountering them was a moment of wonder and gentle awe. We felt like travellers who had found a secret poem scratched into the earth itself.

Ladakh’s Living Rock-Art Legacy

Our find fits into a vast, little-known tradition. Ladakh’s high valleys are dotted with petroglyphs (rock carvings) spanning millennia. Scholars believe the oldest of these may be about 5,000 years old, dating to the Bronze Age. Carbon dating from nearby sites suggests humans lived here as early as 4700 BCE (Bruneau & Bellezza, 2013). In Ladakh, the prehistoric era’s artists favoured sturdy dark boulders, chiselling out figures of daily life and belief. Over time they recorded hunting, dances, cult scenes and symbols that speak of ancient faiths.

By around 1000–700 BCE, cultures of the Himalayan Bronze Age and wider Eurasian steppes were prolific here. This began an unbroken rock-art tradition from the Bronze Age all the way into the early second millennium CE (Bruneau & Bellezza, 2013). In fact, archaeologists note that this stone art tradition culminates in the spread of Tibet’s great religions: Buddhism and Bon (Bellezza, 2008). Petroglyphs turn up in every Ladakh valley – lower Indus (Sham), Nubra (Shayok), Changthang, Kargil, Zanskar – over 500 sites have now been documented (Devers, Bruneau & Vernier, 2014).

Despite Ladakh’s harsh climate, rock carvings survived here even when ice-age hunters first arrived and when medieval armies marched through. For example, some boulders at Alchi (a famous site) were carved in Bronze/Iron Age styles (hunting scenes, ibex), and centuries later the same rocks were re-carved with Buddhist stupas in the 9th–11th centuries (Denwood, 2008). This continuity shows how Ladakh’s petroglyphs bridge pre-Buddhist shamanic times to the historic era of temples. Our Lato discovery, set in this continuum, likely belongs to those pre-Buddhist Bronze/Iron Age layers, adding precious data about Ladakh’s distant past.

Common Motifs and Their Meanings

Ladakh’s rock art speaks a vivid visual language. Certain themes recur again and again, as if carrying deep meaning for the carvers. Among the most common motifs are:

• Ibex and wild animals: Granite boulders teem with carvings of mountain goats, wild sheep, deer, yaks, and other game. The ibex – with its long, curving horns – is especially ubiquitous (Bruneau, 2013). In fact, "the hunting of game animals is the single most common rock-art theme in Ladakh," and "ibex hunting scenes number in the thousands" (Bruneau, 2013). These herds of etched ibex and their human hunters dominate the imagery because these animals were vital: they supplied food, hides and ritual value.
• Hunting scenes and social life: Men with bows, spears and flutes appear alongside animals. Beyond mere hunting records, these scenes may commemorate rites of passage or clan identity. Scholars note that by the Iron Age hunting’s practical importance had waned, yet hunts retained "high prestige and cultural centrality" (Bruneau & Bellezza, 2013).
• Solar and geometric symbols: Many boulders bear circular suns, spirals, zigzags and concentric rings. For example, sun-wheel symbols appear frequently. In the Alchi carvings, archaeologists catalogue sun, swastika, cross and spiral motifs among the earliest symbols (Jettmar, 1985).
• Mask-like human faces: One especially mysterious motif is the “mascoid”: round human faces with large eyes and simple features. These appear sporadically, notably in Nubra and along trade routes. Recent research links them to the Okunev culture of Bronze-Age Siberia (Snellgrove, 1967).
• Other human forms and symbols: Some boulders show dancing figures, horsemen, or even outline drawings of people. Geometric carvings (grids, mazes, footprints) hint at maps or shamanic talismans. Many petroglyphs were later "borrowed" by Buddhist pilgrims: we find stupas, chortens and Tibetan script carved atop or beside ancient scenes (Denwood, 2008).

New Find Amid Known Sites

Ladakh’s petroglyph hotspots are well-charted in broad strokes, but each new discovery still brings surprises. Known sites include Domkhar (home to Ladakh’s Rock Art Sanctuary), Tangtse, Murgi (Nubra), Khaltsi, Zanskar, and Sasoma. An IGNCA survey notes extensive art across Sham valley, Nubra, Changthang and more (IGNCA, 2012). Compared to these, the carvings at Lato were utterly unknown. We found them unannounced by any official record. Even recent scholarship that has expanded the rock-art map of Ladakh remarks only briefly on new sites near "Gya Chu, Meru and Lato" (Devers et al., 2014).

Continuity and Cultural Significance

These ancient carvings matter because they are history in situ – raw data about Ladakh’s pre-Buddhist era. The Lato engravings likely date to the Bronze/Iron Age, a time when Indo-Central Asian cultures mingled here (Rizvi, 1996). Each figure — an ibex, a hunter, a spiral — is a clue to spiritual beliefs or social life that left no written record. Discovering them is like finding a direct voice from antiquity.

Moreover, these carvings show continuity of tradition. Rock engraving in Ladakh did not end with the Stone Age, nor with Buddhism. As late as the 14th century CE local people still added chortens and prayers to stones (Bellezza, 2001). In Ladakh, the very act of marking rock carries sacred weight. Inscriptions in many languages at Tangtse (Kuχean, Sogdian, etc.) tell of traders and pilgrims over a millennium (van Schaik, 2011).

The imagery also hints at community identity. The high relief of ibex hunts in Ladakh parallels "animal style" art across the Eurasian steppes. By adding our find to the record, we help fill in the map of how different clan groups or migrants moved through Ladakh.

Respecting the Stones: A Trekker’s Duty

As trekkers and climbers, we are outsiders but stewards of these wild places. The Lato petroglyphs we found were fragile relics under our feet. We took photos and notes and then left the rocks as we found them. Modern adventurers have a special role. By venturing into remote corners, we can act as first responders to cultural heritage – spotting undocumented sites, alerting researchers, and educating fellow travellers.

In the hush after sunset, as we packed our camp near Lato, the petroglyphs seemed to watch us depart. They reminded us that even in the most familiar-seeming landscape, the past lies just beneath the surface. Our accidental discovery was modest, yet it connects us to a grand continuum of human creativity. May these ancient stones remain safe, their silent stories heard by all who pass this way.

References

• Bellezza, J.V. (2001). Antiquities of Upper Tibet: An Inventory of Cultural Sites. Asian Highlands Perspectives.
• Bellezza, J.V. (2008). Zhang Zhung: Foundations of Civilization in Tibet. Austrian Academy of Sciences Press.
• Bruneau, L. (2013). "Animal Figures in Rock Art from Ladakh." Rock Art Research, 30(1), 43–54.
• Bruneau, L. & Bellezza, J.V. (2013). "A Preliminary Chronology of Rock Art in Ladakh." Revue d’Etudes Tibétaines, 25, 21–56.
• Denwood, P. (2008). "Iconography and Continuity in Ladakhi Art." Artibus Asiae, Vol. 68(1), 67–94.
• Devers, G., Bruneau, L., & Vernier, A. (2014). "Rock Art in Ladakh: A Thematic Overview." In Ladakh: Culture, History, and Development.
• IGNCA (2012). Documentation of Petroglyphs in Ladakh. Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts.
• Jettmar, K. (1985). Petroglyphs in the Indus and Upper Swat Regions. Heidelberg University Press.
• Rizvi, J. (1996). Ladakh: Crossroads of High Asia. Oxford University Press.
• Snellgrove, D. (1967). The Nine Ways of Bon. Oxford University Press.
• van Schaik, S. (2011). Tibet: A History. Yale University Press.