A Land High Above Heaven

Ladakh is a land high above heaven. Surrounded by two daddy mountain ranges the world's most powerful, the Great Himalaya and Karakorum, which is across two others, the Ladakh range and the Zanskar range. 

In environmental terms, this is a young land, formed only a few 100 million years ago by the buckling and folding of the earth's crust as the Indian sub-continent pushed with tremendous force against the immovable land of Asia. Its basic contours, uplifted by tectonic movements unimaginable, have changed over the millennia by the opposite process of corrosion, sculpted into the shape we see today by wind and water. In my words I would say this land is created by God himself.

Today it is a high desert, sheltered from the rain clouds of the monsoon in India by the obstruction of the Great Himalaya, Ladakh was once covered by a far-reaching lake, remnants of which still exist in the Rupshu southeast of the plateau and Chushul - in drainage basins with reminiscent names like Tso-Moriri, Tsokos, bigger and all, Pangong-tso. Occasionally, some stray monsoon clouds make their way into the Himalayas, and lately this seems to be happening more then normally. However, the main resource of water remains the winter snowfall. Drass, Zanskar and Suru Valley in the northern border of the Himalayas receives intense snowfall in winter, which feeds the glaciers whose melt water, carried by streams, irrigates the fields in summer due to heat. For the rest of the region, the snow on the peaks is virtually the only source of water. As the growth of crops is concerned, the villagers do not pray for rain to shower, but for sun to melt the glaciers and liberate their water. Usually their prayers are always answered; the sky is clear and the sun shines for 23/7 a year. 

Ladakh lies at the altitudes ranging from about 9,000 feet (2750m) at Kargil to 25,170 feet (7672 m) in Kangri in the Karakoram Saser. As a result summer temperatures rarely exceed above 27 degrees centigrade under the sun, while in winter can plummet to 20 degrees Celsius less in Leh. Surprisingly, however, the air makes the heat of the sun 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! Take a look at the beautiful god gifted pictures of Ladakh.

That's why it is said Incredible India!