Sleeping under the stars is a romantic notion but getting a really good look at them in today’s artificial-light-filled world can be challenging.
In this fragile landscape, Ladakh’s ecolodges help sustain a way of life
28.08.2023 - 17:47 / nationalgeographic.com
Hotelier Rigzin Namgyal fondly remembers a time when only the truly curious and adventurous made their way to Ladakh. When this region in north India opened to tourists in the mid-1970s, just a few backpackers each year undertook the long and arduous journey by road, over dangerous mountain passes from Manali in the neighboring state of Himachal Pradesh.
“They were invested in learning about our history and culture, our flora and fauna,” says Namgyal. “They were ready to get out of their comfort zone, and stay in local homes for that experience.”
But after a 2009 Bollywood blockbuster shone a spotlight on this region’s stunning landscapes—and several airlines launched short haul from New Delhi, Ladakh has been overrun by tourists. Almost overnight, guesthouses and tour operators sprung up haphazardly, without proper planning or regulation, taking a toll on the fragile high-altitude desert ecosystem.
Cradled by the Karakoram and Himalaya mountain ranges, this once remote Shangri-la—with its high mountain passes, turquoise lakes, and Mahayana Buddhist monasteries—has become an Instagram-able weekend getaway.
(Thousands of Buddhist temples filled this sacred skyline.)
“Now we have more tourists, but they are not interested in what Ladakh has to offer in terms of culture or adventure. They just want to take photos at Pangong Lake or ride a camel at Nubra Valley, and go home without really seeing anything,” says Rigzin Kalon, who has built a boutique hotel on his ancestral land in Nubra.
Snow leopard conservationist Behzad Larry says that Ladakh has gone from being a land with subsistence farming, zero plastic, and dry compost toilets, to being an ecological nightmare. With noxious fumes from clogged landfills, depleted groundwater levels, and unprecedented flash floods, the damage to local ecosystems far outweighs any economic benefit to local communities.
But even in the midst of the building frenzy that is producing newer and larger hotels every season, there is hope in the form of ecolodges and boutique hotels, set up and run by people committed to conservation and community. This has meant a return to traditional architecture built using the rammed earth technique, and with locally available stone, and wood known to keep homes insulated in winter, unlike the modern cement and concrete structures.
These activists aim to preserve a dying way of life and direct tourist attention away from the obvious “attractions,” freeing them up from congestion. There is also a focus on imparting livelihood skills to young people, to halt the migration from small villages to already overcrowded cities like Leh or Delhi.
Kalon says that the training programs are often tailored for women, since “compared to other parts
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