Across The Changthang {On The Rupshu Trek}

Across The Changthang, originally uploaded by The Wandering Hermit.

A group of Changpa Yak herders cajole their herd across the Changthang Desert in search of greener pastures.

Changthang is a high altitude plateau in eastern Ladakh and western and northern Tibet, with vast highlands and giant lakes. From Eastern Ladakh Changthang stretches approximately 1600 km into Tibet. It is the home of the Changpa nomads

The Changthang is a smaller version of the Takla Makan and the Askai Chin, which lie at the other end of the Tibetan Plateau, these two deserts were one of the main reasons why Tibet (and to a lesser extent) Ladakh remained in relative isolation from the rest of the world.

Very few survived a journey through them as it can be an unforgiving place and these nomadic herders and their flocks lead a hard life in such a harsh terrain.

Often their life is a hand to mouth struggle in which the desert dictates the rules but its a way of life now coming to an end due to the march of roads as deserts once uncrossable are bridged by the long black ribbon which marks the new highways crisscrossing them.

During the day the harshness of the terrain is evident as the sun beats down relentlessly sapping strength and resolve but in the evening light this country can be beautiful, desert and all: the harshness becomes subdued; shadows soften the hillsides; there is a blending of lines and folds until the last light, so that one comes to bless the' absolute bareness, feeling that here is a pure beauty of form, a kind of ultimate harmony rarely seen elsewhere.