Ladakh and Zanskar
After four years of persistent petitions to the Indian government (which involved collaborating personally with the King of Ladakh), special permission was finally granted to visit a place very few people on earth are allowed to see: Hanle, Ladakh. 15,000 feet high in the Himalayas on the tense border of India between Pakistan and Tibet (and a full day’s drive on rough unpaved roads from the nearest town), you won’t find much here but silence, and the people who are using it to push the boundaries of what we know about the universe and ourselves: astronomers who built the world’s second highest optical telescope here, and a 400 year-old Drukpa monastery inhabited by only ten monks. This journey involved traveling on foot and horseback to remote monasteries in Zanskar, which are days from the nearest roads and cut off from the world most of the year. September - October 2016.
For more on the sand mandalas made in this region: https://www.steveelkins.net/Interviews/On-Art/Sand-Mandalas/
For more on the journey: https://www.steveelkins.net/Interviews/On-Making-ECHOES-OF-THE-INVISIBLE/Behind-The-Scenes-Photos/
Read MoreFor more on the sand mandalas made in this region: https://www.steveelkins.net/Interviews/On-Art/Sand-Mandalas/
For more on the journey: https://www.steveelkins.net/Interviews/On-Making-ECHOES-OF-THE-INVISIBLE/Behind-The-Scenes-Photos/