OF GODS AND GOMPAS, MOUNTAINS AND MEN

High in the Indian mountain state of Jammu and Kashmir sits the ancient and disputed region of Ladakh.

A land of extremes. Of paradox and opposite. Of ancient, sacred ceremony and otherworldly natural beauty but also intense militarisation and deadly terrain.

Flanked by the world’s two highest and most formidable mountain ranges -the Karakoram and the Himalayas - Ladakh is an education in wilderness.

After travelling through ring after ring of mountains of tortured, brilliantly coloured rock formations. You are released into high altitude plateaus filled with wheat-fields and prayer flags, cold deserts - complete with camels – a relic from the silk road days and dazzling, impossibly blue saltwater lakes and mirror-like glacial rivers. The incredible natural beauty sets the scene for the sacred space – little wonder it has been a place of pilgrimage for centuries. Home to the some of oldest monasteries in the world and the most purest form of Tibtean Buddhism practiced in the world today.

This otherworldly place, only opened to visitors in the 1970s now faces some serious threats to its survival. Climate change threatens its extraordinary ecosystems with plants, animals and cultures that do not exist anywhere else on the planet. It is also the scene of increasing tensions between the two largest armies in the world – China and India - as they battle for control of this disputed region.