Ladakh

At the very Northern tip of India, sheltered by the Himalayan ‘rain shadow’ lies Ladakh, a remote and mountainous region in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, where Tibetan Buddhism and culture flourish.

The capital of Ladakh is Leh, which lies at 3,524m on the historic trade routes between South Asia and China. Once a prosperous kingdom, the town has suffered with the closing off of Tibet, and this decline has only recently reversed with the development of tourism and with military investment by India given its strategic location near Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. The town is still dominated by the 9-storey Royal Palace, built in the 17th Century (roughly the same time as the Potala Palace in Lhasa), however it and the rest of old city are at risk without proper conservation.

Scattered around the Leh Valley are numerous working monasteries, which have fared better than the centre of Leh itself. These house many religious statues and paintings devoted to the deities of Tibetan Buddhism, alongside monks of all ages.

Farther away from Leh are the mountains of the Ladakh range. Averaging over 6,000m high, and with many passes above 5,000m, these are an impressive range and give the region its name – Ladakh means’ land of high passes’. Tucked away in deep valleys amidst these inhospitable mountains are numerous small villages, each with their own religious centre in a landscape decorated with Buddhist chortens and scattered with mani stones covered in religious inscriptions.

These photographs were taken in August 2009.