Moravian brothers in Ladakh - love's labour lost?

This paper describes in brief the history of the missionary activity, from the middle of the 19th century till today, of Moravian brothers in Ladakh, “Little Tiber”, which now is part of the state Jammu and Kashmir in the Republic of India. The missionaries have not succeeded too much in converting the local people (most of whom are Buddhists) into Christianity. Christians constitute but a small minority in today's Ladakh. But Moravian brothers, first of all Wilhelm Heyde (1825-1907), Heinrich August Jaeschke (1817-1883), and August Hermann Francke (1870- 1930), contributed a lot into increasing our knowledge of Ladakh, both its nature and the culture of its people.