Ladakh ("land of high passes") is a region in the Indian Administered Jammu and Kashmir that currently extends from the Kuen Lun mountain range to the main Great Himalayas to the south, inhabited by people of Indo-Aryan and Tibetan descent.
It is one of the most sparsely populated regions in Jammu and In the eighth century, Ladakh had been involved in the clash between Tibetan expansion pressing from the East and Chinese influence exerted from Central Asia through the passes.
Suzerainty over Ladakh frequently changed hands between China and Tibet.
In 842 Nyima-Gon, a Tibetan royal representative, annexes Ladakh for himself after the breakup of the Tibetan empire, and founds a separate Ladakhi dynasty.
During this period Ladakh acquires a predominantly Tibetan population.
The dynasty spearheads the second spreading of Buddhism, importing religious ideas from northwest India, particularly from Kashmir.
The first spreading of Buddhism is the one in Tibet proper.Faced with the Islamic conquest of South Asia in the thirteenth century, Ladakh chooses to seek and accept guidance in religious matters from Tibet.
For nearly two centuries until about 1600, Ladakh is subject to raids and invasions from neighboring Muslim states.
Some of the Ladakhis convert to Islam during this period.
