Ladakh India

Ladakh is a mountainous region in North-West India and in the area known as the Trans-Himalaya, (the lands beyond the Himalaya: Tibet, Xinjiang and some of northern Pakistan. It's slightly smaller than Scotland, the settled population live between 2700 m and 4500 m, and nomadic encampments even higher, and it's the largest and the least populated region of Jammu and Kashmir. The people are a mixture of Buddhist and Muslim. Buddhists are the majority in the east and a slight majority overall while Muslims have the majority in the west. Travellers are likely to see more of the Buddhists as the majority of the tourist attractions are in the east and directly related to Buddhism.

Regions

• Leh
• Dha to Khalsi
• Khalsi to Zoji La
• Nubra
• Zanskar
• Changthang (Ladakh)

Ladakh has many nicknames, Moonland, Little Tibet, and various Shangri La comparisons, all have some truth in them.

Ladakh was an independent kingdom for nine centuries, but it was very strongly influenced by Tibet and also influenced to a lesser degree by the neighbouring Muslim lands. Linguistically Ladakhi is very closely related to Tibetan. Tibet has always been where Ladakhi Buddhists would go for higher religous education, which since the incorporation of Tibet into china has meant the Ladakhis have made the much shorter trip to the Tibetan monasteries in India. The architecture of Ladakh is almost identical to that of Tibet, both of residential buildings and of the monasteries. The class structure, or more precisely the lack of a sharply defined class structure, is common to Tibet and Ladakh, and is in sharp contrast to the rest of India. Related to this is the relatively high status, freedom and outspokenness of Buddhist women in Ladakh and Tibet.

Importantly, a set of cultural practices that keep the population from growing to be more than the land can support, and to prevent a farm from being divided up and thus being unable to support a family, is common to both cultures:

• Monasteries: these would take large numbers of the monks and nuns and thus keep the population at a stable level.
• Polyandry: a practice where one woman marries all the brothers of a family to prevent the family's land from being divided, was common in both Ladakh and Tibet until the 20th century.
• Primogeniture: a system where the inheritance after a man's death (primarily the land) would pass to his oldest son in order to keep farms large enough to support a family.
• Khangbu: the little house to which the father and mother would retire once their eldest son married and took over the management of the farm, inheriting the main house along with it.

However, Tibet was far from the only influence on Ladakh. Where Tibet was largely closed off to outside influence, Ladakh was a nation where the caravan trade played an important role. Traders from the neighbouring Muslim lands were a common sight in Leh's bazaar until the 20th century. The folk music is based on the styles of the Muslim parts of the Western Himalayas; likewise polo was imported from these lands and enjoys popularity to this day with Ladakhis regardless of faith.

Geography
The Indus valley is the Ladakhi heartland, with the highest population density, and large amounts of agricultural land. Running parallel, roughly north-east south-west with it are a series of valleys and mountain ranges. North of the Indus valley is the Ladakh range, on the other side of which is the Shayok, and Nubra valleys. South of the Indus is the Stok range, clearly visible from Leh. On the other side is the Markha valley, a popular trekking destination. Farther south-west is a series of minor ranges and then uninhabited valleys we come to Zangskar, with the Kargyak and the Stod rivers joining at Padum, to form the Zangskar river which bucks the trend and flows north through a narrow gorge to join the Indus. To the south of Zangskar is the Grand Himal range marking the southern limit of Ladakh.

To the east of this series of ranges is the Changtang, a high plateau home to nomads. It is known as Kharnak in the west, Samad Rokchen in the north east and Korzok in the south east. Not a true plateau, it has a chaotic assortment of minor mountains ranges not much higher than the wide valleys between them. With no drainage leading out of this area, there are a number of beautiful salt water lakes that make popular destinations for tourists.

Get in
Buses run directly to Leh from either Manali or Srinagar. The sensible choice from Manali is to take the bus that goes as directly as possible as there are few sites worth visiting until near Leh. This is the choice that most travelers will want to take due to the tense security situaton in Kashmir, however the road is only open from June to mid October due to snow fall. There are shared taxis from manali which start early in the morning and reach Leh in the night. Buses, however, stop overnight in Sarchu. Coming from Srinagar there are a few interesting places to stop on route (Lamayuru and Alchi that offer accommodation).

Daily flights to Leh are run by Indian, Jet Airways and Air Deccan from Delhi, Srinagar, Jammu and elsewhere. These are, however, subject to inclement weather and may be cancelled at any time, keep your schedule flexible. Altitude sickness is also a worry given the altitude.