Where is Ladakh
Land of high passes
Where is Ladakh located?
The north Indian province of Ladakh is located in the state of Jammu and Kashmir and has little in common with the mother country India. One feels much more like in Tibet; the Buddhist culture of the immigrant peoples of the highlands has been kept alive better here than in some places in Tibet.
As the "country of high passes", Ladakh, is strategically important; in the northeast it is bordering on China, or Tibet, in the north-west it is bordering Pakistan and Kashmir, in the west, China occupies the Aksai highlands.
Indian and Pakistani troops are on the scene of an absurd war on the Siachen glacier, the main drinking water reservoir in the Himalayas. Therefore, one finds several thousand Indian soldiers in Ladakh, in fact the army is the largest employer in the region.
Leh, the capital of Ladakh, lies in a side valley of the Indus at 3500 meters height. In the almost vegetation-free desert-steppe of the Himalayas, it is often -30 degrees cold in winter time, whereas the temperature can rise to + 40 degrees in the summer.
Locals and pilgrims have been passing through Ladakh for millenniums; it is a wonderful place for trekking. Especially the Ladakh and Zanskar mountains offer many trekking possibilities.
