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Indian Astronomical Observatory

Indian Astronomical Observatory

Leh & Ladakh

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Leh & Ladakh
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The observatory stands at Hanle at 4,500 metres, which makes it one of the world's highest sites for optical, infrared and gamma-ray telescopes, and the tenth-highest optical telescope anywhere. The Indian Institute of Astrophysics runs it. What brings you up here is the same thing that brought the astronomers: air thin and dry enough to see through. Arrive with a night already spent acclimatising lower down. At this altitude, coming straight up costs you the evening you came for.

Indian Astronomical Observatory is known for

Among the highest telescope sites on earth4,500 metres in the Western HimalayasRun by the Indian Institute of Astrophysics

Indian Astronomical Observatory guide & itineraries

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Leh sits at 3,500 metres and the single most important thing about it is that you cannot skip the first two days. Fly in and you arrive from sea level in ninety minutes. Spend the first forty-eight hours doing almost nothing — walk slowly, drink far more water than feels reasonable, no alcohol, no trekking. People who ignore this lose a week to altitude sickness or end up on a flight out. Coming overland from Manali or Srinagar acclimatises you properly, and if you have the days it is the better arrival. Once you are adjusted: Thiksey monastery at dawn for the morning prayers, which visitors are welcome at and which almost nobody attends. Hemis is grander but further. The Indus valley villages between Leh and Nimmu are where you see how people actually live at this altitude. Pangong and Nubra both need inner-line permits, arranged in Leh in a morning, and both are long hard drives. Pangong as a day trip is a mistake — twelve hours in a car for an hour at a lake. The road season is roughly June to September. Outside it the passes close and Leh is reachable only by air.

Hemis Monastery

Hemis Monastery

Hemis belongs to the Drukpa (Dragon) lineage of the Kagyu sect, and it is set back in a mountain canyon on the western bank of the Indus, roughly 45 kilometres south of Leh. It is the largest and wealthiest monastery in Ladakh, and the most influential. The buildings are traditional Tibetan monastic architecture on a large scale: whitewashed stone walls, timber windows painted in fine detail, and wide flagstone courtyards. Below is a museum holding centuries of gold-plated statues, sacred thangkas and old weapons.

Diskit Monastery

Diskit Monastery

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Leh Palace

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