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
Ladakh 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.
Yes, water! Today, a high -altitude desert, sheltered from the rain-bearing
clouds of the Indian monsoon by the barrier of the Great Himalaya, Ladakh
was once covered by an extensive lake system, the vestiges of which still
exist on its south -east plateaux of Rupshu and Chushul - in drainage basins
with evocative names like Tso-moriri, Tsokar,a nd grandest of all, Pangong-tso.
Occasionally, some stray monsoon cluds do find their way over the Himalaya,
and lately this seems to be happening with increasing frequency. But the
main source of water remains the winter snowfall. Dras, Zanskar and the
Suru Valley on the Himalaya's northern flank receive heavy snow in winter;
this feeds the glaciers whose meltwater, carried down by streams, irrigates
the fields in summer. For the rest of the region, the snow on the peaks
is virutally the only source of water. As the crops grow, the villagers
pray not for rain, but for sun to melt the glaciers and liberate their water.
Usually their prayers are answered, for the skies are clear and the sun
shines for over 300 days in the year.
Ladakh lies at altitudes ranging from about 9,000 feet (2750m) at Kargil
to 25,170 feet (7,672m) at Saser Kangri in the Karakoram. Thus summer temperatures
rarely exceed about 27 degree celcuis in the shade, while in winter they
may plummet to minus 20 degree celcuis even in Leh. Surprisingly, though,
the thin air makes the heat ofthe sun even more intense than at lower altitudes;
it is said that only in Ladakh can a man sitting in the sun with his feet
in the shade suffer from sunstroke and frostbite at the same time!
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