Mountains of Magic in Ladakh Long After She First Visited, Lesley Downerreturns to This Remote Himalayan Region to See What’S Changed
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Source: The Independent {Traveller} Edition: Country: UK Date: Saturday 3, May 2014 Page: 6,7 Area: 1086 sq. cm Circulation: ABC 63907 Daily Ad data: page rate £10,472.00, scc rate £44.00 Phone: 020 7005 2000 Keyword: Exodus INDIA Mountains of magic in Ladakh Long after she first visited, Lesley Downerreturns to this remote Himalayan region to see what’s changed homes (despite the rain that marked this arrival, rossing the Himalayas from the Indian solar heating makes perfect sense: Ladakh normally plains to the mountain region of Ladakh enjoys intensely bright sunshine nearly all year is a bone-shaking 22-hour minibus ride, around). I spoke enough Tibetan (which is close to through snow and blizzards, over four the Ladakhi language) to communicate a little, and Cof the world’s highest passes. The last and high- I spent my time visiting temples and monasteries est, Taglang la, is a breathtaking 5,328m above sea and painting pictures of the lunar landscape. I used level and the second-highest pass in the world that to sit high on the hillside and listen to the sound of you can drive over (after Khardung la, 5,602m, in unearthly whistling rising through the still air as northern Ladakh). From there, I hope to see La- women in long black dresses and stove-pipe hats dakh’s other-worldly pink deserts. But when we worked in the barley fields below. get there there’s dense cloud and freezing winds In those days, there were few westerners – and and it’s all I can do to hop out, shivering, and take fewer cars. Ladakh had only been open to tourists a couple of photos of the cairns, prayer flags and for seven years. Bordering on China and close to Buddhist stupas marking the top. Pakistan, it is strategically sensitive. There had It’s only when the minibus descends that I catch been wars with China and Pakistan and fighting my first glimpse of Ladakh’s magical landscape. in Kashmir and it was only when things quietened We drive through pouring rain along a spectacu- down in 1974 that the Indian government decided lar gorge, between jagged maroon-hued mountains to open the area to overland travel, though it was etched into surreal rock formations. Even the pud- so remote and difficult to get to that few travellers dles are pink. On rocks and hills and huddled in considered going. It can still only be reached by valleys between dazzling green fields are white- road between June and September, after which washed buildings with slanted window frames the passes are submerged deep under snow. painted in brilliant colours. Lines of rain-sodden Roughly the size of Scotland, Ladakh is part of prayer flags hang limply from flat roofs. the northern Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, For me, this is a homecoming. I spent a couple and has a population of less than 300,000. It was of months here in 1981 in an inn run by an English- the crossroads of the ancient trade routes from man who was installing solar heating in Ladakhi Reproduced by Gorkana under licence from the NLA (newspapers), CLA (magazines), FT (Financial Times/ft.com) or other copyright owner. No further copying (including printing of digital cuttings), digital reproduction/forwarding of the cutting is permitted except under licence from the copyright owner. All FT content is copyright The Financial Times Ltd. Article Page 1 of 5 282477657 - SEALO - A22010-1 - 85227869 Source: The Independent {Traveller} Edition: Country: UK Date: Saturday 3, May 2014 Page: 6,7 Area: 1086 sq. cm Circulation: ABC 63907 Daily Ad data: page rate £10,472.00, scc rate £44.00 Phone: 020 7005 2000 Keyword: Exodus T-shirt that matches his robes and a slightly be- South Asia and until the end of the 19th century, mused look. We are as exotic to him as he is to us. mule trains carrying shawls and spices made the We climb from temple to temple, admiring the journey from Amritsar through Ladakh to Yarkand altars and hangings, the burning incense and but- in China. This haven of Tibetan culture – Lada- ter lamps, and the beautifully executed thankas kh’s people are a mix of Tibetan and Indo Aryan – paintings of deities that follow an iconography – it became part of independent India in 1948. as precise as medieval western religious paintings. More than 30 years after my first visit, this time Jamyang explains the different deities: not just I’ve come on an organised tour. There are eight in serene Buddhas but fierce manifestations fes- our group including our leader, Bhupesh, a charm- tooned with skulls. In one of the temples there is ing, ebullient young man from Darjeeling. Our a beautiful golden image, two storeys high, of journey began in Amritsar, in 44C heat. We travelled Maitreya, the future Buddha who is to come. 150km north east to McLeod Ganj, where the Dalai We walk through fields lined with poplars and Lama lives, climbing ever higher to Manali, from willow trees to the fortress and monastery at Shey, where we made the three-day journey across the once the king’s summer palace. “Every year more Himalayas to Ladakh. An epic adventure – and now visitors come, much is changing,” says Lama we’ve arrived in Ladakh, the best is yet to come. Jamyang. “Small changes are good, big changes I awake to brilliant blue skies and a vista of snow- bad. There are more and more hotels; too many covered crags, dazzling white, behind the barren cars. One day, no one will come any more because purple and mauve mountains that edge the valley. Ladakh has changed so much.” There has certainly I’m thrilled to be back in this ravishing landscape been a boom in tourism, particularly in the past with its doll’s-house buildings, fluttering prayer 10 years, with a lot of investment by the Indian flags and white stupas perched everywhere. government and a huge boost in domestic tour- I set off in search of my old home but the town ists. It’s hard to find consistent statistics but around has grown beyond recognition. It’s full of stalls and shops – Tibetan refugees selling prayer wheels and 8,000 tourists visited in 2002, while by the end turquoise and coral jewellery alongside Kashmiri of 2013 some 137,000 had passed through. merchants offering pashminas: “fixed price, no We spend the following day at the Hemis fes- bargaining”. The palace looms above the city, with tival, a day-long dance extravaganza. Actually, says sloping, buttressed walls and overhanging wooden Jamyang, it should properly be called a ceremony. balconies. In 1981, it was a crumbling ruin, now it’s The real purpose is not to entertain but to make been restored. There are steps and a footpath lead- rain come, the fi elds grow and the work of the ing up to it and a road along which Indian tourists temple prosper. Most monasteries hold a festival cruise in their SUVs. I set off briskly but I’m soon every year . At Hemis, crowds have gathered. West- panting. Leh is in a valley but it’s still set at 3,524m erners with long-lensed cameras rub shoulders above sea level. I reach the entrance with its carved with locals. Boy monks run out, red robes fl ying, lion heads and poke around the maze of dark rooms, and squash into a corner of the courtyard. Then skirting the occasional hole in the floor. Only the horns sound out , drums beat, cymbals clash, trum- throne room, painted with tigers and Buddhist pets blare and masked dancers emerge, whirling symbols, retains some ancient grandeur. in slow motion, balancing on one clogged foot, then the other, in a mesmerising ritual. Suddenly the sky clouds over and hail falls, then I take a stroll north of the city, which in 1981 sleet, unusual since Ladakh is said to get no more was full of barley fields. Now it’s bustling with rainfall than the Sahara . After a respectful pause building work as hotels and guesthouses spring most of the audience fl ees, though the dancing up. The Dalai Lama is due to visit in July and the goes on until evening. Jamyang does no more than city is expecting an influx of 100,000 visitors. I pull his robe over his head. It’s good luck when it pass a woman with long plaits wearing a black rains, he says. The ceremony will be successful. homespun dress, fingering prayer beads and hum- We drive for fi ve hours north west to the village ming quietly. She smiles and greets me with, of Alchi, home to four monasteries which house La- “Julay”, the traditional greeting, which means dakh’s most treasured Buddhist frescos dating from “hello” and “goodbye” as well as “thank you”. the 11th century. It’s an idyllic place beside a tur- The next day we drive to the monastery complex quoise river with emerald-green trees on the banks. of Thiksey, an hour south of Leh. Here, white- Outside my window are sheer rock faces, purplish washed temples sit on the hill like fortresses. Our brown. Jamyang may be a lama but he’s still 26 years guide is a young lama (a teacher, usually a monk) old. He scrambles up a dusty mountain slope and called Jamyang. He wears trainers, a burgundy runs straight down, red robes fl ying. Reproduced by Gorkana under licence from the NLA (newspapers), CLA (magazines), FT (Financial Times/ft.com) or other copyright owner.