Zanskar Trek Tour, Naharlagun, Arunachal Pradesh India

Zanskar is a small Tibetan Buddhist kingdom located in Ladakh, north west Indian Himalaya, and locked away from the outside world by snowed-up passes for all but a few months in the summer. The terrain immediately becomes dramatic and arid as you enter a land of Tibetan Buddhism. It is scattered with mysterious high altitude villages with bear traps, ghost traps, chortens and inhabited by remarkable people. Zanskar women wear the wealth of the family on their heads as they work in the barley fields, their head-dresses being covered in turquoise, jade, and silver charm boxes.

Our new trek crosses the Phirtse La pass, 5,450m, before dropping into the Lunak valley. We visit lonely Phuktal Gompa which clings to a cliff face. It has been a place for meditation for many centuries and seems imbued with the essence of mysticism. From here our new route crosses the rarely travelled Stondge La pass to gain the main Zanskar valley.

We will visit Padum traditional village headquarter of Zansker valley before leaving the kingdom by a series of spectacular gorges and passes. Villages are perched improbably on the edges of precipices, their green terraces of barley appearing as oases in the mountain desert an extraordinary adventure to an extraordinary part of the Himalaya.