Journeys in Ladakh, Part I

Over the course of the next few days I will tell about our weeklong trip to Ladakh, a region in the Himalayas that is an exhilarating place to travel in because of its mountainous beauty, Tantric Buddhist religion, and a way of life that is very different from what most people associate with India.

Ladakhis are Indian citizens due to some strange twists of fate: this part of Tibet was conquered in the 19th century by some Hindu rajas and in 1947 became incorporated into the new Indian state. Ladakh is now a semi-autonomous region within the state of Jammu (the provenance of the kings who had conquered it) and Kashmir.

While much of the rest of the heavily Muslim Jammu and Kashmir is under curfew and plagued by both internal violence and conflicts with neighboring Pakistan, Ladakh remains a laid-back haven of monasteries, semi-nomads, and shaggy grazing animals. It is also, however, a militarized zone since it lies on the border with China and was the site of the 1962-63 Sino-Indian conflict.

Just an hour's flight north of Delhi, this area is inaccessible for large parts of the year because of its altitude (3500 to 5500 meters) and severe climate. The mountain passes become frozen, leaving residents stuck in their villages and subsisting on the cows they've been raising all year (during the temperate months, they eat sticky, tasteless barley porridge and whatever they can grow, including wheat; the only big city, Leh, also imports food from outside). The tourist season--also a major feeding ground--is very short, July and August, and while it is quite hot during the day, snow peaks are a common sight.

The images here are of urban--yes, urban--Leh, its skies, mountains, and one of its many stupas at different times of day. If I thought before that J.W.W. Turner was exaggerating, I no longer do so after this trip.