Ladakh Travel Guide

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Ladakh is a land like no other. Bounded by two of the world's mightiest mountain ranges, the Great Himalaya and the Karakoram, it lies athwart two other, the Ladaksh range and the Zanskar range. In geological terms, this is a young land, formed only a few million years ago by the buckling and folding of the earth's crust as the Indian sub-continent pushed with irresistible force against the immovable mass of Asia. Its basic contours, uplifted by these unimaginable tectonic movements, have been modified over the millennia by the opposite process of erosion, sculpted into the form we see today by wind and water. more....
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About Ladakh Travel Guide
Ladakh is a land like no other. Bounded by two of the world's mightiest mountain ranges, the Great Himalaya and the Karakoram, it lies athwart two other, the Ladaksh range and the Zanskar range. In geological terms, this is a young land, formed only a few million years ago by the buckling and folding of the earth's crust as the Indian sub-continent pushed with irresistible force against the immovable mass of Asia. more....

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Religion & Culture
The traveller from India will look in vain for similarities between the land and people he has left and those he encounters inLadakh. The faces and physique of the Ladakhis, and the clothes they wear, are more akin to those of Tibet and Central Asia than of India. The original population may have been Dards, an Indo-Aryan race from down the Indus. But immigration fromTibet, perhaps a millennium or so ago, largely overwhelmed the culture of the Dards and obliterated their racial characteristics. more....

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Historical Background
For close on 900 years from the middle of the 10th century, Ladakh was an independent kingdom , its dynasties descending from the king of old Tibet. Its political fortunes ebbed and flowed over the centuries, and the kingdom, was at its greatest in the early 17th century under the famous king Sengge Namgyal, whose rule extended across Spiti and western Tibet up to the Mayumla beyond the sacred sites of Mount Kailash and Lake Mansarovar. more....

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Fairs & Festivals
The religious philosophy of Buddhism, however, profound and subtle doesn't preclude an immense joie-de-vivre among its Ladakhi adhe-rents,a nd even solemn religious enactments are made the occasion for joyous celebration. Many of the annual festivals of the gompas take place in winter, a relatively idle time for the majority of the people. They take the form of dance-dramas in the gompa courtyards. more....

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Oracles & Astrologers
The Ladakhis believe implicitly in the influence of gods and spirits on the material world, and undertake no major enterprise without taking this influence into consideration. The lamas are the vital intermediaries between the human and the spirit worlds. Not only do they perform the irtes necessary topropitiate the gods - in private houses as well as in the gompa temples ; they also often take on the role of astrologers and oracles who can predict the auspicious time for starting any enterprise, whether ploughing the fields, or taking in the harves, arranging a marriage or going on a journey- and advise as to the auspicious way of going about it. more....
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Arts & Crafts
There is little tradition of artistic craftsmanship in Ladakh, most luxury articles inthe past having been obtained through imports. The exception isthe village of Chiling, about 19km up the Zanskar river from Nima. Here, a community ofmetal workers, said to be the descendants of artisans brought from Nepal inthe mid -17th century to build one of the gigantic Buddha -images at Shey, cary on their hereditary vocation. more....

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Cultural Tourism
Visits to the major Buddhist monasteries and other cultural or heritage sites are the principal tourist attractions of central Ladakh and Zanskar. These sites, most within reach of Leh, may be visited by bus or by taxi. Most villages and/ or monasteries are provided with regular bus services from Leh. Taxis are expensive, with fixed tariff for almost every monastery or group of manasteries, but offer good value in terms of comfort, convenience and time frame. more....

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Archery & Polo
In Leh, and may of the villages, archery festivals are held during the summer months, with a lot of fun and fanfare. They are competitive events, the surrounding villages all sending teams, and the shooting takes place according to strict etiquette, to the accompaniment of the music of surna and daman (oboe and drum). As important as the archery are the interludes of dancing and other entertainment. Chang, the local barley beer, flows freely, but there is rarely any rowdiness. more....

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Adventure in Ladakh
Ladakh offers great cope for undertaking adventure activities amidst landscapes of breathtaking, rugged beauty. The most popular and best established among these are trekking, mountaineering and river-rafting. Trekking possibilities include short, day-long walks up and down mountain slopes to visit isolated villages or monastic settlements, or across a ridge to enjoy the sheer beauty of the lunar mountainscape. more....