This volume illustrates the plurality of approaches to studying history and current research in the making. It compiles contributions – very different in length and in style – from researchers from a variety of disciplines: linguistics, tibetology, anthropology, history, art and archaeology. Their sources include linguistics, archaeological and artistical evidence; Tibetan chronicles, Persian biographies and European travel accounts; government records and private correspondence, land titles and trade receipts; oral tradition and reminiscence of survivors' recollections. The majority of the papers were first presented at the International Association of Ladakh Studies (IALS) conferences held in 1999, 2001 and 2003, and these have been supplemented by a few additional contributions. I neither have sufficient knowledge nor the space to discuss each of these papers at length or adequately, I will rather summarize the content of the book as a whole. The aim pursued is not to write a history of Ladakh, but rather to propose – as its title shows – several "histories of Ladakh" (p. 2).