Nubra Valley

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View from Diskit gompa on Nubra Valley

Nubra Valley is situated about 150 km north of Leh, the capital town of Ladakh, India. The common way to access this valley is to travel over the Khardung La from Leh where one will first encounter the Shyok Valley. To enter the Nubra valley, one must cross over the Shyok River via a small bridge and pass through a military checkpoint. Non-locals require an "Inner Line" permit (easily obtained in Leh town) to pass. The Sasser Pass and the famous Karakoram Pass lie to the northwest of the valley which connect Nubra with Xinjiang. Previously there was much trade passing through the area with East Turkestan and Central Asia. The Nubra valley contains the small towns of Sumur and Panamik. Sumur has a Buddhist gompa or monastery while Panamik is noted for its hot springs. Most of the people are of mixed Tibetan and Central Asian origin and speak varieties of the Balti language.

The beautiful village of Baigdandu is located in the valley. Here one can suddenly find beautiful people boys and girls with startling blue eyes, auburn hair and ruddy cheeks as against the typical mongoloid features of the Ladakhis. Local lore has it that they were a Greek tribe who came in search of Jesus Christ's tomb and settled here. In 1948, the cease-fire line cut across the tribe, isolating Baigdandu village, a major part of the tribe was stranded on the other side. In 1971, the Ladakh Scouts liberated more areas and brought more of these people together, pushing back the Pakistanis and setting up the record of having captured the highest post in the world. Baigdandu is famous for the goats that give you the famous Pashmina shawls.^[1]

Two of the villages accessible to foreigners in the Shyok Valley are Diskit and Hundar. Diskit is home to a busy and dramatically positioned gompa. Hundar is one of those rare places on earth where you can see in one place the splendid beauty of a desert with bactrian camels (two-humped), sand dunes, rolling mountains and snow peaks.