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| Mountain scenery of Ladakh |
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| The land of the high passes |
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Between the Karakorum and the Great Himalayan Range to the south it is found the "La-Tags" the land of the high passes: a wild barren desert-like landscape of a yearning beauty. Crossed by the chains of Zanskhar Range and of Ladakh Range (the prolongation of the Kailash mountains) this is a land of desert highlands, deep narrow steep-sided ravines among rocky walls, sparse vegetation and sand dunes. The great plateaus and the deep valleys are crossed by impetuous streams, the Indus (Singge Khababs, the river that flows from the mouth of the lion), after having flowed across the chain of Kailash, crosses the Ladakh the from east to west. South of Leh and north of the Zanskar Range rises majestically the Stok Range.
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Sceneries of Ladakh
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Unusual elements of the Ladakhi landscape are the great lakes of sweet or salty water shed especially in the plateau of the Rusphu and the Chang Thang, Pangong Tso, 150 km long and 4 km wide, is nearly an inland sea at a height of 4,500 masl, with intensely blue clear water. Having no outlet in the lake's basin concentrate minerals deposited by the melting snows every year. Tso Moriri, a pearl shaped lake and Tso Kar, all contain large mineral deposits.
Sceneries of Ladakh |
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The few cultivated areas are situated on the immense alluvial fan, fan-shaped deposit formed by the streams at the exit of mountain canyons onto the flatter plain of the Indus valley. Cultivation is sustained by melting snows, the water for irrigation is not drawn by the streams, but it is withdrawn from the mouth of the glaciers by means of channels cut along the granite mountains and gravel slopes. Fields of barley (which is roasted and ground to become Tsampa, eaten with the salted butter tea called gur-gur) are surrounded by willow and poplars providing a display of green that contrast with the gold and rust of the mountains. Apple trees and apricots are very common, apricots (chuli) are very useful to the local life they can be preserved by drying, and the kernel yields oil.
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Sceneries of Ladakh
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Following the road that coasts along the Indus, many military fields are met, a constant in Ladakh; but also farmers' villages, real oases in the middle of a desert of rocks and sand. In every village it always rises a monastery, at times on a rocky spur, hidden in a narrow valley or resting on the side of a mountain.
Sceneries of Ladakh |
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At the side valleys outlet camouflaged among the rocks, above inaccessible peaks the profiles of buildings and fortress stand out. In the cultivated oases, sometime isolated sometimes one on top of the other or leaning on a slope of the mountain, a lot of ladakhi houses are seen, in the Tibetan style, with a loggia and a roof where vegetables and fruit are set to dry.
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Sceneries of Ladakh
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Every mountain pass is guarded by a pile of stones left by the wayfarers in sign of thanks to the demons of the place. Chorten, mani cairns, prayer flags integrate in the landscape, the tartschos long sticks where banners long different meters are tied waving to the unceasing wind. On sandy slopes sometimes they appear religious formulas written with white stones and graffiti or characters graved on smooth rocks. Chortens are a very common sight. This is a multistoried stepped square structure, that serves as a receptacle to a person's remains. Sometimes it stands over a path to form a gate (khani or kagani), other times it marks the entry of a village or a sacred area. The chorten reproduces the cosmic order and the Dharma. The five elements that compose it (cube, sphere, cone, cap, scythe of moon) correspond to the five Supreme Buddhas, to the five elements of the cosmos and the five centres of strength of the human body.
Sceneries of Ladakh |
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A characteristic construction are the mani cairns or mendong, high even two meters. Flat stones are piled up each of which has been graven with sacred figures or letters of the mantras. The extremities of the mani sometimes finish forming two great chorten.
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Sceneries of Ladakh
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