LADAKH

Ladakh has often changed names, all of which give a good description of the conditions prevailing in the region: Ladwags-land below the mountain passes; Bladwags: land of the lama; Maryul: the red country; Muah Ris bSsor Gsum: land to the west of Tibet. In the West it is sometimes referred to as Moon country and Little Tibet. Rather a long list of names for an area of 59,000 square kilometres having one of the lowest population densities in the world: 2 inhabitants per kilometre, 59,000 square kilometres of rocky desert, apparently inhospitable mountains, a world of bewitching silence, framed in a parallel fashion by two of the most imposing mountain ran ges, the Karakorams to the North, the Himalayas to the South.