Leh Ladakh and its Beautiful Village

At an altitude of 12000 feet, a city exists even in the harsh climate and it is home to 30000 people since it is located far away.
In places where usually you get to see villages or small towns. You will be surprised to see the development of Leh.
The Leh main market here is the busiest area. Where you can find a lot of cafes, bakeries and almost all kinds of stores. What you would normally find in a modern city, you can easily find here. Set by the cold desert and barren mountains, Leh City will surprise you with its vibrancy and energy.

Kushok Bakula Rimpocheee Leh Airport – This is the only place where you can get directly from Delhi at 12000 ft within an hour. It is one of the highest airport in India and it is also now India’s first carbon neutral airport. But maybe you are not fond of this hustle and bustle and want a quiet and calm place which is just 10 km away from Leh there is a village named Phayang, where you can completely escape from all those city vibes.

The trip to Leh Ladakh and its Beautiful Village is getting more and more interesting as I try to hear stories about this place from the people who live here.

Phyang – A complete contrast to the modern vibes of Leh, it feels like you are back in time.

This is Rantak which is a type of flour mill which was invented long time ago by the local people for grinding wheat. Its special thing is that it rotates automatically not by hand but by the flow of the river. The river water turns a turbine attached to a stone and the grain is automatically ground between the two stones. Now it is not in good condition as people do not use it much.

Like Leh has Phayang on one side. Similarly, there is another village on the other side of Leh.

Stok – Stok is at a slightly higher altitude than Leh, and at this highest point, there is a very beautiful Buddha statue. And by coming here you can experience a different peace.
Despite being so close to Leh, you will not find many tourists here. Because most of the tourists go towards Pangong or Nubra Valley. This is the reason why these villages are good offbeat locations.

Thiksey Monastery – Just 10 kilometers from Stok you will find Thiksey Monastery.
Thiksey Monastry stands tall around this plane area. I mean even if you are passing through this road and not going to Math you can still see this miracle from the road itself. Looking from outside I was wondering how it would look from the top of the monastery, so I reached the top. And then it started raining. In Ladakh, it rains only for about 13 days in a year. So if you get to see rain, consider yourself lucky. And I got very lucky when I got to see such a beautiful rainbow.

Shanti Stupa – Shanti Stupa This structure represents world peace and prosperity. And it looks so amazing that there is no doubt that it is the most famous place in Leh.
If you want to have the best view of Leh in the evening, then there is no better place than Shanti Stupa.

Leh has always been a dream destination for many travelers. You will not find such natural scenery anywhere else in India or in the whole world. And the rapid development of Leh has now made commuting to this remote place very easy. And yet you haven’t seen this side of India yet, then you shouldn’t wait much longer.

Hemis Village – Today is the birth anniversary of Guru Padmasambhava on 19th July.
It is as if the cold and barren land of Ladakh comes to life again when the festival of Hemis comes. This used to happen every year at the Hemis Math in Ladakh. This is the most famous and popular festival of Buddhists and monks. To see which people come from all over the world. It is a celebration of the birth anniversary of Buddhist guru Padmasambhava. In which the monks wear very colorful costumes and perform a masked dance with different types of masks, which is called “Chham dance”.

I spoke to a lama here who tried to tell me everything about the festival.

The Lama – Guru Padmasambhava aka the second Buddha, today is his birth anniversary. He has 8 manifestations or incarnations. At which we see a masked dance with their different faces. In various incarnations he preached dharma to the people.
Like, some people calmly and some angrily. Just like a teacher scolds the mischievous students, he preached the Dharma to the people in different incarnations. Like you guys dance for fun, but this dance is different from that. People see it with great reverence and faith. It is like worship.
This dance has to be seen with folded hands and bowed head. This is not a normal dance for fun, it is like worshipping.

This festival, which lasts for two days, goes on. The heritage of Ladakh’s culture serves as a celebration of the victory of God over evil. And to represent this, an idol is prepared out of flour which represents the negative energy. and it is destroyed by a masked lama at the end of the festival. The broken pieces and ashes of the idol are thrown in all directions.
The ritual signifies the purification of the soul after death.

The Lama – and Hemis festival is also very popular among foreigners. Earlier Indian tourists did not come here, but as soon as they came to know about this festival, you can see that they also started coming in large numbers.

Many such festivals are organized in Ladakh. And if you ever come to Ladakh, you must plan your trip around one such festival. Because this side of Ladakh is very different from Ladakh, we all know.

The journey to Leh Ladakh and its Beautiful Village was not going to end there. It still has a story to tell. Which will make you think about yourself. The final story of Leh Ladakh and its Beautiful Village is as follows,

Nubra Valley – Whenever we think of sand dunes and desert, we imagine a very dry and hot place. Where there is no water for hundreds of miles and the temperature is more than 50 degree Celsius. Like the Thar desert or the Sahara desert. But when we come to this unimaginable place our imagination goes wrong. Where there is river, there is cold weather and 11000 feet altitude. But still the sand dunes are here. A unique cocktail of nature can be seen here and this is the Ladakh Hunder sand dunes. These sand dunes of Ladakh are formed due to natural geographical phenomena and they have got different shapes due to these strong winds. Adjacent to the sand dunes is a river called the Shyok River. Due to this river this place gets greenery. And this greenery makes the already beautiful landscape even more amazing.
Now what could be more beautiful than this?

And not only sand dunes but camels are also present here. Bactrian camels with two humps live here. The sand dune is spread over an area of 7 km. On one side of which is Hunder village and on the other side is Diskit village and this whole area is known as Nubra Valley.
And in Nubra Valley, you will find either sand dunes or an isolated rock in a vast wasteland.

After reaching Nubra Valley, you will find a 100 feet tall Buddha statue here. Which is in Diskit Monastery. This idol promotes world peace and this idol has 2 storied temple.