A high desert plateau pitched between the China to the east and Pakistan to the west, Ladakh ("The Land of High Passes") is part of India, is the home of last undisturbed Tantric Buddhist population in the world, protected from rest of the world because of the sheer geography of this mystic land. This rugged mountainous cold desert is bounded with three parallel ranges of the Himalayas, the Zanskar, the Ladakh and the Karakoram. These mountain ranges were formed over 45 million years by the folding of the Indian plate into the Eurasian plate. Nestled along the Indus river valley most of the Ladakh lies above 11500 ft. in a rain shadow, generally denying entry to monsoon clouds with rainfall levels at par with Sahara and winter temperature dips to – 30 degree Celsius. The extreme of temperature create a short tourism season as it remains inaccessible for much of the year as its high passes choked with snow from Nov through May. The region's high paths and roads are open in May.
“The land is so barren and the passes so high that only the fiercest of enemies or the best of friends would want to visit us"
(Ladakhi saying)
