Selections magazine
Ladakh
was cut off from the world until 1974, when the Indian government
opened up its northern most region to tourism. It took time for
outsiders to venture into the “land of high passes” or “Little
Tibet” as it is also known, bordering as it does Western
China-Tibet and surrounded by the mighty Himalayan mountains.
Today,
while the capital Leh is geared towards tourism with plenty of
hotels, guesthouses and restaurants, and the markets crammed with
Tibetan, Buddhist and Ladakhi trinkets, it is still relatively off
the beaten track. This has been a blessing, curbing the region from
becoming overly touristic, unlike other Indian mountain retreats like
Darjeeling, Dharamsala-Mcleod Ganj, and Shimla, and is due to what
has kept the region so isolated for so long: its geography.
Leh
is at 3,500 meters, and is an oasis amid a high altitude desert and
mountains towering over 6,000 meters that are evident everywhere you
go in the capital. With temperatures in the low degrees at night even
in the summer, Leh is off-limits during the freezing winter months
and only accessible for four months or so of the year, certainly by
plane, between June and late September. The only other ways to get in
and out are gruelling overland journeys, whether from Srinagar in
Kashmir to the South-West, a 20 hour journey to cover just 450
kilometers, or a similarly long bum-breaking ride that traverses
5,000 meter high passes to Manali in the south.
Such
altitude requires a few days of acclimatization. Even clambering up
300 meters of stairs to visit the Shanti Stupa – a Buddhist shrine
– on the outskirts of Leh requires a few breaks due to shortness of
breath and the heart beating like piston as you reach 3,800 meters.
There's a similar sensation when you walk up to the 17th
century Leh Palace that dominates the skyline of the city, with its
nine floors built into the rockface and the architecture a smaller
replica of the original seat of the Dalai Lama, the Potala Palace in
Lhasa, Tibet. The lungs get a further workout when you climb up from
the palace to an old castle garlanded in colorful Tibetan prayer
flags blowing in the wind.
However,
a few days at over 3,000 meters in Leh and day trips to surrounding
Tibetan Buddhist monasteries such as Thikse is only minimal
preparation for a jeep trip to Pangong Lake, some 160 kilometers
away. The route goes over Changa-La, the second highest motorable
pass in the world at 5,360 meters (17,586 feet). With that height
about half of what commercial airliners fly at, it is no wonder
visitors are not recommended to spend more than 20 minutes at the
pass.
En
route, the road passes through streams heavy with snow melt, past
grazing dzo, a hybrid of the big hairy yak and the cow, until
reaching Pangong, one of the world's highest brakish lakes at 4,300
meters. Shimmering with seven shades of blue, magical may be an
overly used cliche, but such a sight at the rooftop of the world is
no understatement, or to describe the wonders of this formerly
inaccessible mountainous region.
Text and photographs by Paul Cochrane
No comments:
Post a Comment