Excursions India : Ladakh Tour Package
Cermoneys Ladakh
Customs of Ladakh
MARRIAGE CEREMONIES
Marriages are usually initiated by the boy's parents, when he is about 20 years old. The parents of the boy will visit the girl's parents (she is usually two to three years younger than the boy) to ask for their agreement to the match. If the proposal is accepted, lamas are consulted to select an auspicious date.
The marriage celebration usually lasts all night, beginning in the late evening when the village families arrive, each bringing food for the wedding feast. During the nightlong celebration, the groom will often dance and certainly drink chang, while the bride is expected to remain sitting, often in the kitchen. The bridal couple is presented with ceremonial katas and often with sums of money.
Towards sunrise, the bride is led to the groom's family home where she is met by lamas and her new family. In the ensuing ceremony, the bride initially refuses food until she is led from her father to her new husband, with whom he then shares a meal.
The bride is then shown the house and by sunrise, the ceremony is complete. The celebration, however, will continue much longer with musicians, food and chang.
A different type of marriage called Skus-te-Khyong-ches or "to bring by theft" is conducted when a person is marrying for a second or third time (due to death or divorce) or the individuals involved are poor.
In this type of marriage, the match making arrangements are similar to those previously described but the bride is quietly brought to her new home. Several days later, relatives and friends are invited for a meal and the public is considered informed of the new marriage.
Although it is usual for the bride to move to her husband's family home, the reverse may occur if the girl's family is wealthy or if her family has no sons, in which case the groom will carry the girl's family name.
FUNERALS
Ladakhis practice cremation of their dead except in a few special instances such as children or persons who died of smallpox.
After a ceremony in the home of the deceased, the corpse is carried to a type of walled oven where, with many prayers by attending lamas, it is cremated. In most cases, the ashes are then scattered in a holy river, but persons of high standing will have their ashes placed in a chorten.
The ashes of a high lama will often be mixed with clay and formed into a miniature chorten only a few inches high. This will be placed in another chorten, which may be a highly decorated and bejeweled chorten located inside a gompa, or a plain chorten like so many which dot the Ladakhi landscape.
Children below the age of seven or eight are never cremated, instead a lama decides the most auspicious method to use in disposing of the body. The various methods include embalming the body and leaving it on a mountainside, placing it in a river or embalming and burial.
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