Elite Traveler January-February 2017

elite traveler JAN/FEB 2017 99

CHINA

THE DETAILS Shakti Ladakh offers a seven-night package (available from May to end September annually) from $5,775 per person, based on two sharing and including private accommodation in village houses on a fully inclusive basis including all meals and beverages, all activities, as well as two raft trips, an accompanying English speaking guide, private chef, support guide and porters, car at disposal and taxes with transfers between Leh Airport and the village experience. Flights not included. For booking or further information contact Maia Sethna, maia@shaktihimalaya.com, +44 203 151 5177, shaktihimalaya.com

NORTHERN AREAS

AKSAI CHIN

PAKISTAN

LADAKH

JAMMU & KASHMIR

TIBET

INDIA

drinking wine in the “naughty” temple. Such delights were swiftly curtailed by 12th century Muslim invaders; and future temples would be up the mountain on more easily defended sites. During his short, unsuccessful reign from 1830 until Ladakh became part of the British Raj in 1834, the merry-making monarch, Tsepal Tondup Nomgyal, chose a spectacular site below Stok Monastery south of Leh for his new summer pleasure palace. Today's royals, King Jigmet and Queen Diskit, have no ruling status, but they still live in the shadow of Stok Kangri peak (20,037ft). His Majesty has turned one corner of his four-story family home into a heritage hotel, but looking around it means checking into one of its four bedrooms: even the bar is strictly for residents only. The on-site museum is more democratic, giving visitors access to elaborate regal crowns and jewels in addition to Buddhist art and weaponry. If you suffer from temple fatigue, be sure to keep enough in the tank for a dawn visit to Thiksey, a 12-story, 15th century monastery known as Little Potala for its striking resemblance to the mighty Buddist standard bearer above Lhasa. As the sun comes up, two red-robed monks take up their instruments for the daily call to prayer. The eerie sound of twin 12ft trumpets echoes hauntingly over the Indus valley, bringing sleepy monks to the main temple for age-old rituals of morning worship. Watch a while and you’ll find yourself sharing their breakfast. In Ladakh the hospitality habit that provided fodder for planes never wanes.

Valley to a glamping pasture at the base of a high Himalayan pass. Sumptuous tents with thick mattresses promised a good night’s sleep, but only after a gourmet dinner and a chat around the firepit over a glass or two of India’s Grover Vineyards La Reserve excellent red. Ladakh has such a rich Buddhist heritage that the Dalai Lama, normally resident at Dharamsala, keeps a house in the village of Choglamsar as a base for his annual three-day orations. Grounds set up with floodlights, loud speakers and shelter against the sun cater for up to 150,000 faithful; in a region known as Little Tibet, they’re always packed. The monasteries are a vital part of the education system, with boys as young as five introduced to lives of study and contemplation. Exploring the roots of their society requires careful selection and strong lungs to clamber up steep steps. At Basgo, I negotiated a path lined with bardo , stone cairns where spirits hide from pursuing demons during the period between death and rebirth, to reach the imposing palace perched on a crag. The 16th century king of lower Ladakh who built it was imprisoned when he invaded Balistan in Pakistan: the price of his release – marriage to a Muslim girl, the price of his love for her – a small mosque in the grounds. Alchi is an extensive 11th century gompa (a Buddhist religious complex) on the banks of the Indus. Its elaborately carved wooden facades are imposing, but don’t miss the wall paintings showing kings hunting stags and

Opposite page White water rafting on the Zanskar river Left top The place where the Indus and the Zanskar Rivers come together Left below A red-robed Buddhist nun tends the monastery flock

Photos: Getty Images