Ladakh & Zanskar · Western Himalaya & Trans-Himalaya
Garden produce sold directly by the women who grew it
Ladakhi women sit in a long row along the bazaar selling what their own gardens produced that week — turnip, spinach, peas, apricots in season. It is the most reliable indicator anywhere of what is actually in season in the region.
Local produce, and a long-running argument for eating what Ladakh grows
A membership organisation of Ladakhi women that runs a shop and a kitchen and campaigns against dependence on imported food. Worth visiting for the argument as much as the apricots.
Local wool, apricot products, books on Ladakh
The retail end of a long-standing local development organisation, and one of the more transparent places to ask where a thing was actually made.
Exhibitions, archives and two restored old-town houses
A cultural centre occupying restored historic houses below the palace. The buildings themselves are the exhibit — a demonstration of what Leh's mud-brick and timber domestic architecture was.
Copper and silver teapots, churns, ladles and ritual vessels
A village, not a shop; buying means asking at a house. The forms have been made the same way for generations and a churn bought here will outlast its buyer.
Fresh apricots in July, dried apricots and kernels the rest of the year
Ask for raktsey karpo by name. Unsulphured dried apricots are brown, not orange — the orange ones are imported.
Famous shops, markets and workshops in Ladakh & Zanskar, and what each is known for. (6)