The Ladakh Series: The People

A place is often characterised by its people and infact play a pivotal role in distinguishing between a good destination and an average one. The Ladhaki population like a secular base consist of Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu and Christian community. On a professional front, the community is divided further into Mons and Dards, which predominantly have survived on Agriculture and cattle raising activities. However with passage of time, the local population has slowly grabbed on the opportunity of tourism and moved to restaurants, taxis and other tourism professions.

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Ladhak may have a harsh climate for 9 months of the year, but the people of Ladhak are genuinely soft, simple and kind hearted. I could see this through multiple instances, may it be Lotus –our taxi driver who would not argue on the taxi fare and agree with most of our demand or be it Phanchuk family, our host at the Pangong Lake who took great care of us. I infact felt genuinely touched when a father of our taxi driver-Dorgi, paid for our breakfast money, which is so unlikely in most situation.

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Maybe this is attributed to the religion they preach and practice, where any kind of negative vibes are not encouraged. This non commercial psychic behaviour can also be due to Ladhak not being open to the rest of the world until the mid 1970’s. In this harsh climate, people would need to remain cooperative and bonded as a community to survive rather than live in a status quo. However I can see a change in this behaviour with the younger generation being exposed to the tourism and slowly being non tolerant specifically to our ever demanding Indian tourist. I can just wish that Ladhaki people stay bonded to their roots and culture. Amen.

The Ladhak Series: Hemis festival 2010

I was lucky enough to have my Ladhak visit coinciding with the Hemis Festival on 21st and 22nd of June 2010. The Hemis monastery is the largest and the richest Gompa in Ladhak. The monastery is situated away 7 kms from the main road and goes very well with the actual meaning and purpose of a Gompa – meaning a Solitary place.

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The Hemis festival is conducted ever summer to commemorate the birth of Guru Padmassambhava, the founder of tantric Buddhism in Tibet. During the festival, the lamas perform the sacred dance wearing colourful robes and mask.

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Though the festival turned out to be a great opportunity to click some great photographs, I missed on the opportunity to derive the meaning of the actual dance. One could easily relate the dance drama to Good V/s Evil. However I did get different interpretations from various sources (book and locals), with each one of them deriving their own meaning out of this act, further adding to my confusion. Maybe that’s how it was designed to be seen. As they say, nothing is right and nothing is wrong. It’s only the way we see it.

The Ladhak Series: Palaces and Monasteries

What’s in a place, if it does not have a history to uncover? Ladhak does not disappoint you in any sense. The Palaces and the monasteries are two aspects of the state that can amaze and wow you, as well as help you understand the Ladhaki culture and history.

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Ladhak has predominantly 3 main palaces- The Leh palace, the Shey Palace and the Stok palace. And all of them are very much unlike the others palaces in grandeur from Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka. These Palaces are simple in terms of architecture and beauty. The only aspect that differentiates the palaces with the ordinary household in Ladakh is the size of the building, for example the Leh palace which is 9 storey large and still remains the largest structure in Ladakh.

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The Namgyal family which currently resides in the Stok palace, has been ruling the province of Ladakh since the 15th century and has played a vital role in spread of Buddhism in the region. There were Mughal and Sikh intrusions in the past, however with the passage of time the practice of preaching and following Buddhism has just grew stronger.

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The monastery or the Gompa mean Solitary place. The Gompa’s are the centre of worship where the lamas (monks) go about with their duties, presumably oblivious of the crowd of sightseers. The most famous of the monasteries are the Thiksey, Hemis, Lamayaru and Alchi. These Monasteries give you a sense of calm and I indeed felt so when I visited the Spituk Monastery.

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I have travelled across many destinations in the recent past and am making a genuine effort to know culture and history of the land. An easy way to do so it to read a book to relate what you have seen. I would suggest a book by Janet Rizvi – Ladakh: Crossroads of High Asia. A genuine effort to help us understand Ladhak in its entirety i.e. people, history and culture.

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I travelled across numerous lands in search of calm and peace, but eventually returned back home to find them both within.

The Ladakh Series: PangongSo Lake

My dear friend Murali has been really happy man these days. His last post on my blog has brought an unnoticed writer into limelight. So he insisted on writing another article, which seems to be the only way to Sucess. Lol. Kidding folks....

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Pangongso Lake By Murali rajan

After spending a day wandering around Leh, we started out for “the lake”… with Lotus bhai at the helm and Jitendra Singh Ji by his side, we left by 8, late by more than a hour… risking the cliché, the song for the day was from 3 idiots, which I believe, made land of numerous passes and the lake a must visit place… the terrain changed immediately on exiting leh, winding roads, slowly and steadily we climbed…
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en route to Pangong Tso lies the third highest motorable road in the world… The Chang La, standing tall at an astonishing 17,590 ft (5360m)… as we moved on towards the pass, the landscape changes from green fields and dusty hills to all white mountains demarcated by electric (or telephone) lines… thick blankets of snow adorning the sides of NH 1D welcomed us… a small temple, couple of army shacks, few loos, a yellow sign and lots of prayer flags, all beautifully framed in pure white… our defense personnel was extremely hospitable to all… serving hot tea (herbal as well)… a lifesaver for many in pretty cold locale… the temp it seems had touched 5 deg below zero early morning… that is cold… we had been warned not to stay up there for more than half an hour and to drink loads of water, as altitude and thin air could cause headache and nausea on the way down… lack of time explained why the shutterbugs were buzzing around… however, I felt that, for most travelers, the snow seemed to create the flutter rather than the pass… everyone was running around in the snow… throwing snow balls… somebody had made a snow man as well… very good one… complete with a red cap and a carrot nose… seemed to come right out of calvin & hobbes strip…
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we were soon on the way down through the town of dubruk… there seemed to be very few climbs after the biggy… the roads were great with amazing views to leave anyone dazed and dreamy… Tangtse was the next town and the only town in the way… lunch time… the hotel (unfortunately, none of us remember the name of the place, but there are very few places anyways to eat and stay) threw us a surprise… in the hallway were pictures of the hotel owner with the stars of 3 idiots… aamir, madhavan, sharman and saif (oh, he is not in the movie, but kareena is, but couldn’t find any pics of hers) all of them nicely framed… guess the star value rubbed off on the prices as well (only slightly more expensive than the eateries on the Jammu- Srinagar – Leh route)…
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the road takes us through many wildlife protected areas in ladakh… yaks and horses roamed freely, but the star of the day was marmots… cute little animals, belonging to the rodent family, they prefer high altitudes… found them chilling out in the sun…seems that these rodents hibernate through the entire winter… cool…
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finally, we laid eyes on the bluish green waters of the one of the world’s highest salt water lake… the colours seemed to change every time u looked at it… another 20 min and we were at the edge of the lake… it was a sight for sore eyes… the lake just did not seems to end… snow capped mountains on both sides… clear blue skies… and lots and lots of bar headed goose… but then the shutter bugs complained… there are only a few shots to take and that is it… ha ha… it didn’t matter… the silence is like music… gives u a high… damn good one ;-)
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we had not booked anyplace to stay… all the places were booked, but one tent owner did take us in for nights stay and food at his house… got just what we wanted, however some kind of training would be required to tackle the ladakhi toilets… there was one room for us with a lot of beds on the floor and some thick blankets… the room had glass windows and wooden roofing… once settled into the our new pad, we headed to the lake shore… the place was getting cold and we put on all the possible warm clothing that we could… the lake shore had other ideas… as warned our host, the winds started blowing, and suddenly cold was killing… the trip or rather trek back to the room was rather painful… nightfall and time for campfire… soaked up all the heat that we could under the starry skies… diamonds all around complemented by golden silence… probably only the cold kept us firmly rooted to the ground… our host cooked some wonderful food, hot hot food… seemed like icing on the cake on a marvelous day…

The Ladkah Series: Leh- Destination One

Our long journey of 3 days finally ceased with our destination Leh. Tired but excited we seeped in the Army accommodation guest house. The next 6 days, gave me an opportunity to get a feel of Leh, which in fact was quite unlike the picture I had in mind.

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The city of Leh is the capital of the Ladakh province and situated at the banks of Indus. Leh is located about 475 kms from Srinagar and 450kms from Manali, the two most preferred cities to travel to the destination. The travel to Leh has been as wonderful journey and as good as the destination. For benefit of all, I would like to reiterate the fact that ladakh is a province and Leh is the capital city. I often missed this point and would use the term Leh ladakh quite naively. The Ladakh province in itself is a part of the J&K state and in fact in the Himalayan region often addressed as Jammu, Kashmir and ladakh state. A point, we in the rest of India often miss out. People often wonder how Ladakh, a predominantly Buddhist habitat would be a part of Jammu (Hindu base) and Kashmir (Muslim base) state. The history goes that the Namgyal, the rulers of Ladakh were defeated by Ranjit Singh, the king of Kashmir and as a part of an agreement; Ladakh became an integral part of J&K. The people of ladakh have still not come in terms with this fact and internally still within crave for their own identity.

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Coming back to Leh, I often visualized when detailing our trip, how the city of leh would be. Pictures of a very sparsely populated city with not much accommodation and food facilities would often come to my mind. But I guess globalization has caught us everywhere and Leh isn’t spared either. Leh, like any other tourist centers has what you ask for- the Hotels, the restaurants and the shopping Centers (malls may soon come up). So folks who plan to do a Leh trip without a package tour can do so with any hesitation and can get accommodations ranging from Homestay (Rs 200/- onwards) to luxury hotels.

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An important question, that arises out when planning for a Leh trip is - what do we visit in Leh. Being the capital city of the erstwhile ruler, makes Leh quite an accessible place, with most of Palaces and Monasteries build around the city. One can visit all the 3 palaces- Shey, Leh and Stok along with monasteries – Thiksey (15 km), Spituk (7 kms), Leh and Shanti Stupa, in a single day tour. One can go shopping specifically around the Tibetan market for precious stone, dry fruits and clothes. Mind you, the cost of goods is slightly higher in Leh due to transportation cost that is involved. Adventure sports needs a mention with Rafting, rock climbing and cycling being conducted in packages. We had the opportunity of rafting (Grade 3) in the Zanskar River and it was a wonderful experience. The package included transportation sans lunch for Rs.800/-. One can do a mix of cycling and rafting for a day’s package of Rs.1500/- that would include lunch.

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When in Leh eat what the ladhaki’s eat, ie the rice, dal, sabji and roti. Yes, this indeed is the staple food of the people which being a contradiction to them being having a close food habit with the Chinese and Tibetan counterparts. However the famous restaurants in Leh serve predominantly Chinese food. A few to mention are - Tibetan Kitchen (My take), Summer Harvest, and Chopstick and Dreamland. I would also suggest that one visits the German Bakery (Nothing to do with the Pune branch) for some nice coffee and cakes. The shopping center and the restaurants are all situated in a market place and at walkable distance to one another.

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Finally, a point of advice - when you touch base Leh, you may find it nice and warm, but as the day progresses to nights, you may experience headache and weakness. A two days rest is highly recommended with a constant need to sip plenty of water. Start your day early and rest well into the night and you shall enjoy every moment of this Ladakhi expedition. Amen.