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Arriving At Leh
By Flight : Leh - Leh is the main airport for this area. Direct flights link it to Delhi, Chandigarh, Srinagar and Jammu. Kargil, Suru and Zanskar valleys - Srinagar and Leh airports are both convenient.
By Roadways : Leh - Srinagar-Leh road is the main route with an over night halt at Kargil. The road is open between mid June and November. Ordinary and deluxe buses of the J&K state road transport corporation regularly ply on this route. Taxis can also be hired at Srinagar for this trip.

The Major Fascinating Sights At Leh
Leh Palace : This palace described has a miniature version of Lhasa's Potala Palace. It was built in the mid of 16th century by King Singe Namgyal. It is still owned by the royal family. This palace has nine storeys. One part of the palace is occupied by the museum. Its narrow passages lined with paintings, arms and old thankas (cloth painted with Tibetian deity). Its central prayer room has religious texts lining the walls. There is a ruined palace / fort set above the Leh palace. The remains of the Leh Gompa houses a large golden Buddha, murals, painted scrolls and old manuscripts.

The Tsemo Gompa : The Tsemo Gompa or Red Gompa is situated at the north of the city has a strenuous walkable distance. The left side of its entrance has the portrait of Tashi Namgyal. It has a colossal 2-storey high image of Maitreya, flanked by Avalokitesvara and Manjusri figures.

Soma Gompa : The new Soma Gompa is a new monastery situated at old village. It was built in 1957 to commemorate the 2,500th birth-day of Buddha.

Hemis : It is 40 Km south of Leh, along a road crossing the Indus. Among the innumerable tankhas (paintings on cloth), there is one which is supposed to be the biggest of its kind in existence. The exposition of this tankhas takes place once in eleven years. Every year, in June, a fair (' Mela of Hemis Gompa') takes place at Hemis which is a colourful occasion for the mask dances.

Tiksey : It is 25km south of Leh. This is considered as one of the most imposing monastery in Ladakh. It is a 12-storey monastery painted in red and white and ochre. It has 10 temples surrouned by typical tapering walls. 60 lamas and a nunnery reside at the hill side below. The complex contains numerous stupas, wall paintings, tankas, statues, large pillar engraved with Buddha teachings and swords. The interior of new temple dominated by a giant 15 meters high Buddha figure.

LADAKH

Ladakh is a land like no other. Bounded by two of the world's mightiest mountain ranges, the Great Himalaya and the Karakoram, it lies athwart two other, the Ladakh range and the Zanskar range.

In geological terms, this is a young land, formed only a few million years ago by the buckling and folding of the earth's crust as the Indian sub-continent pushed with irresistible force against the immovable mass of Asia. Its basic contours, uplifted by these unimaginable tectonic movements, have been modified over the millennia by the opposite process of erosion, sculpted into the form we see today by wind and water.

Yes, water! Today, a high -altitude desert, sheltered from the rain-bearing clouds of the Indian monsoon by the barrier of the Great Himalaya, Ladakh was once covered by an extensive lake system, the vestiges of which still exist on its south -east plateaux of Rupshu and Chushul - in drainage basins with evocative names like Tso-moriri, Tsokar, and grandest of all, Pangong-tso. Occasionally, some stray monsoon clouds do find their way over the Himalaya, and lately this seems to be happening with increasing frequency. But the main source of water remains the winter snowfall. Drass, Zanskar and the Suru Valley on the Himalaya's northern flank receive heavy snow in winter; this feeds the glaciers whose meltwater, carried down by streams, irrigates the fields in summer. For the rest of the region, the snow on the peaks is virtually the only source of water. As the crops grow, the villagers pray not for rain, but for sun to melt the glaciers and liberate their water. Usually their prayers are answered, for the skies are clear and the sun shines for over 300 days in the year.

Ladakh lies at altitudes ranging from about 9,000 feet (2750m) at Kargil to 25,170 feet (7,672m) at Saser Kangri in the Karakoram. Thus summer temperatures rarely exceed about 27 degree celcius in the shade, while in winter they may plummet to minus 20 degree celcius even in Leh. Surprisingly, though, the thin air makes the heat of the sun even more intense than at lower altitudes; it is said that only in Ladakh can a man sitting in the sun with his feet in the shade suffer from sunstroke and frostbite at the same time!

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