Ladakh, the land of many passes and also known as ‘Little Tibet’, lies between the two highest mountain ranges of the world – the Himalayan range in the south and the Karakoram Range in the north, bordering Pakistan and the Tibet Autonomous Region.

In geological context, this is a young land, formed only a few million years ago by the buckling and folding of the earth’s crust as the Indian sub-continent pushed with irresistible force against the immovable mass of Asia. It was once covered by an extensive lake system, the vestiges of which still exist on its south-east plateaux of Rupshu and Chushul-in drainage basins with evocation names like Tso-moriri, Tso-Kar, and grandest of all, Pangong lake.