Nubra Valley

Nubra Valley, beyond the legendary Khardung La pass, is a startling landscape where cold desert dunes sit beneath glaciated peaks. Once on the Silk Route caravan trade between India and Central Asia, Nubra remains a cultural crossroads - Tibetan Buddhist villages with gompas (Diskit, Hunder, Samstanling) sit alongside Muslim Balti villages (Turtuk, Bogdang) that retain their Central Asian character. The Maitreya Buddha statue at Diskit, the sand dunes of Hunder with their double-humped Bactrian camels, the hot springs of Panamik, and the apricot orchards of Turtuk (one of India's northernmost villages, liberated in 1971) make Nubra one of Ladakh's most diverse and rewarding regions.