Leh-Area Monasteries and Palaces

Before you leave Leh, arrange trips to area monasteries and nearby Shey Palace and get a festival schedule from the tourist office (or check www.jktourism.org/cities/ladakh/festivals/cal.htm); dates vary according to the Tibetan lunar calendar. Periodic dance-drama festivals called chaams, which bejeweled locals attend in droves in their finest costumes, are not to be missed; those held at the Hemis and Thiksay gompas are particularly colorful.

Ladakh's monasteries have custody of its ancient culture and age-old wisdom as well as its future. The tempo of daily life—festivals, spiritualism, education, leadership—revolves around the gompas. Nearly every Ladakhi family offers one of their sons to the monasteries to be educated as priests: they are home to Ladakh's monks of tomorrow as well as today.

Leh's taxi union has fares that are high but consistently applied. Roads are bumpy here, so request a Sumo or a Qualis (not a Maruti van) for a safe, reasonably smooth trip.