Asia | Outside in

A remote corner of India realises it preferred being neglected

Ladakh rejoiced when it was separated from Kashmir. Now it is discovering downsides

Dorsey Takapa, 65, a retired goat herder poses for a photograph in Choklamsar, a village nestled high in the Indian Himalayas, India September 27, 2016. When asked how living in the worlds fastest growing major economy had affected life, Takapa replied: "Traditional values are being lost as we focus on money." REUTERS/Cathal McNaughton SEARCH "LADAKH" FOR THIS STORY. SEARCH "WIDER IMAGE" FOR ALL STORIES. - S1BEUGNQNBAB

Nov 10th 2022|LEH

LADAKH, a territory at the northern end of India, is so high up in the clouds that those arriving by plane are advised to stay in bed for the first 24 hours, to acclimatise to the thin air. Outside Leh, the main settlement, it is a place of Buddhist monasteries, vast skies and empty expanses scattered over 59,000 sq km of high-altitude desert and mountains. On all sides are towering peaks—the Himalayas, Karakoram, Ladakh and Zanskar—shielding it from China, Pakistan and the rest of India. Before a gruesome clash between Indian and Chinese forces along the disputed border in 2020, it was a place so remote and so unreal that it was easy to forget it existed.

This article appeared in the Asia section of the print edition under the headline “Outside in”