The climate
is extreme with long snow bound winters and a brief 3 months summer. Cut off
from the water laden monsoon clouds by the great Himalayan range, rainfall
is a mere 2 inches per year and it is the melting snow flowing swiftly down
the rocky streams and rivers that sustain habitation and meagre crops of
barley, wheat, fruit trees and vegetables. During the short summer season
the villages are splashes of green providing relief to this stark grandeur
with their patchwork of fields, groves of tall poplars and willows and
little whitewashed flat roofed houses.
Within this area falls the division of Ladakh with its Leh and Kargil
districts in the state of Jammu and Kashmir and the adjacent district of
Lahaul-Spiti in Himachal Pradesh. For centuries these trans Himalayan tracts
remained locked behind formidable mountain walls linked to the outside world
by barely penetrable passes and narrow mountain paths. Despite this
isolation and the harshness of the climate and environment, the people are
endowed with a hardiness of character and natural gaiety.
For the
visitor this region is a dramatic escape into an unfamiliar world with
marvellous opportunities for an unusual holiday. An ideal place for
trekking, mountaineering, camping or white water rafting; for discovering
the treasures of Buddhist monasteries; for shopping in romantic bazaars; for
participation in the excitement of a local festival or for simply
experiencing the highs of this lunar landscape! Since the best time to visit
this area is from early June to end September it is an ideal destination for
the monsoons - especially as it does not rain here !.
Ladakh is a
land like no other. Bounded by two of the world's mightiest mountain ranges,
the Great Himalayas and the Karakoram, it lies athwart two other, the Ladakh
range and the Zanskar range ....
Spilling out
of a side valley that tapers north towards eroded snow-capped peaks, the
Ladakhi capital sprawls from the foot of a ruined Tibetan style palace - a
maze of mud-mud brick and concrete flanked on one side by cream-coloured
desert, and on the other by a swathe of lush irrigated farmland ....
The Zanskar
valley is noted for its high ranges, fine Gompas and gentle people. The most
isolated of all Himalayan valleys inaccessible for 8 months in a year, it is
now a popular destination with trekkers ....
The Lahaul
plateau nourished by the Chandra and Bhaga rivers and the Spiti valley
linked to it by a high pass the Kunzam la, are together a district in
Himachal Pradesh - another region where nature can be seen at its wildest
....
