Tourism in Ladakh
This union territory is located between the Karakoram mountain range to the north and the Himalayas to the south, and is situated at a height of 11,400 ft. Ladakh is composed of Leh and Kargil districts.
Kushok Bakula Rimpochee Airport at Leh has flights from Delhi year-round on Indigo, Vistara, GoFirst, and Air India.
The nearest railhead is Udhampur railway station connected with all major cities and towns in India.
Shared taxis to Nubra, Kargil, Srinagar, and Zanskar leave Leh in the early morning.
It has numerous tourist places including ancient palaces, monasteries, museums, war memorials and ecotourism.
Ladakh, with rugged terrain having some of the tallest peaks and highest mountain passes of the world, offers several opportunities for adventure tourism.
Extreme adventure at Siachen Base Camp and Kumar Post is an army-run 30-day annual expedition for the medically fit civilians below the age of 45 from Siachen Base Camp to Kumar Base (16,000 ft), Indira Ridge, Indira Col (extreme northwestern point of India administered area) and other features,[27][28] Rafting is available in summers at various places, along Indus river and its tributaries, such as Chiling Sumda on the Zanskar River.
The area thrives on donations made by tourists and the local people of the region but now the government plans to develop these monasteries.
The state government also plans to hire experts for landscaping of the barren regions and such a move was possible only after the Centre released funds.
The monastery of Sumda-Chun is one of the most important surviving early Tibetan Buddhist temples of the Ladakh region.
The statue has several arms which "carry leaves in one hand, a string of beads in another, a kamandal in a third, and pointed towards the earth with a fourth.
However, the rock art of Ladakh at several locations is under severe risk of damage and outright destruction though road, housing and other development projects, and we are confident that the establishment of RAU will play a key role with other interested organisations, to create local community level awareness and ownership of this precious cultural heritage.
Ladakh to home to exotic wildlife including snow leopards, Himalayan brown bear, etc.
[43] The ecotourism has been introduced in Ladakh by non-governmental organizations and individuals like Helena Norberg-Hodge and Thinlas Chorol.
Following major festivals and events are celebrated: Fossils at Burtse are well-preserved marine fossils, "including gastropods (snail-like mollusks), bivalves (shellfish) and foraminifera (microscopic organisms)" from the Eocene epoch (56 to 33.9 million years ago) found in Burtse area at 16,000 feet altitude above sea level.
This caused the formation of Himalayas 40 million years ago by folding of mountains by the "tectonic forces that lifted these sediments from a near-coastal marine environment to these heights.
