Nubra Valley: The Cold Desert of Himalayas.

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Nubra Valley Cold Desert in Winter

Nubra Valley is situated in north western part of Ladakh. This Valley lies along the banks of the shayok and its tributary. To Reach Nubra one has to climb 18380 ft. Then descend downward to 10000 ft.While traveling to nubra, as soon as you will reach khardung-la top,your heart rate will increase and you may start feeling headache, perhaps its due to thin air. After traveling further down, there is grassland, called ‘Spang Chhenmo’, popularly known as North Pullu. During summers local inhabitants come here with their animals for grazing.



Nubra Valley : Map

Little further ahead, there is a village, called Khardong. It is surrounded by mountains which keeps it cool even during summer. At this village there is a PWD rest-house, state government livestock development center and a primary school. Despite state government education department efforts more than 80 percent villagers are still illiterate.



Nubra Valley : A Sign Board at North Pullu

There after comes the village Khalsar, which is situated along a stream. It is a Buddhist village and has one P.W.D rest house and a government primary school. After traveling 12 km ahead from khalsar, the road is divided into two parts. One goes towards diskit, hundar and turtuk, and other which is on the right side goes to sumur and panamik.The Valley consists of two rivers- Nubra and shayok. The Nubra River, flows from the north-north west and shayok river, flows through the other portion of the valley. At the junction of the rivers the valley of the Shayok is some four miles wide, whereas the Nubra river is from two to three miles.



Nubra Valley : Two Hump Camels

In Nubra Valley, Diskit, Hundar, Sumur, Panamik, Bogdang and Turtuk are the main villages. Among all the other villages, Hundar is the most beautiful. It has greenery and fruit trees viz, cherry, apricot, walnuts, almonds etc. It has about 1150 Buddhist population. Only a few people are Muslims, both the communities live together peacefully. They invite each other to dinner, lunch and other religious ceremonies.

http://thinkingparticle.com/articles/nubra-valley-cold-desert-himalayas

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