Ladakh > Zanskar

Ever tried walking for two or three weeks without a soul in sight? Try the wild mountains of Zanskar if you’d like to give up all hopes of seeing human habitation ever again. Then you'll suddenly find yourself stumbling upon an oasis. The flavour comes from the remoteness, a tang absent in other remote areas. Zanskar is not for the faint-hearted. It takes a bit of daring - you might be tempted to start all over again. But no. This is a trip not meant to be repeated except in memory - over and over again.

As you cross the icy waters of a river, hanging on to the tail of a mule - for the mule knows the river better than any man and knows where to go - memories of the lush vale of Kashmir will seem like another day. In this stark remoteness you are on your own. Except at the end, where the twin peaks of Nun (7135 m) and Kun (7087 m) announce the end of the Zanskar.

The Tibetan influence on this region is apparent in the presence of fluttering prayer flags, the faces of the people, the chortens, the stupas and the gompas. For more than a thousand years, the region was under the control of the local dynasties of Zangla till it fell to the rulers of Kashmir.

Subsequent to the disturbances in Tibet and the resultant exodus of faith, this remains the last bastion of what Tibet must have been like for ages before it fell. Take heart. In the Dark Age of the Kali Yuga, as all universal beliefs wane, there, hidden in the silence of the mountains is still a place where the faithful live out their humble lives following the faith in Zanskar.